


Education in Harmony

by blackmustache



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-13
Updated: 2012-10-13
Packaged: 2017-11-16 06:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/536340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackmustache/pseuds/blackmustache
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine doesn't meet Kurt during his sophomore year at Dalton - but fate intervenes and makes sure they still cross paths a little later in their lives. When Blaine is about to start his first year studying Musical Theatre at Tisch School of the Arts, he loses his iPhone in a New York City cafe - and fashion major Kurt is the one who finds it and returns it to him. And if negotiating his new friendship with Kurt and all that entails (possible romance, surviving meeting Rachel Berry and occasional karaoke nights) doesn't keep Blaine busy enough, he's living with Cooper who happens to be in rehearsals for The Worst Play in New York.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Education in Harmony

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2012 Blaine Big Bang!

By the time Blaine's been in New York for a week, he's pretty much satisfied with the way the apartment looks. He's unpacked almost all of the stuff he brought from home, he and Cooper have managed to score the world's most comfortable sofa/armchair set for practically nothing on Craigslist, and he's finally managed to replace the vacuum cleaner box they've been using as a coffee table with an _actual_ coffee table.

When their parents had offered to buy the two of them an apartment to live in, an unfurnished space in a building unofficially known as the ugliest building in Chelsea wasn't exactly what he'd imagined. He'd watched one too many movies where the lead character lived in an improbably stylish Midtown penthouse for their wage bracket, so the reality was something of a letdown at first. 

He realises now that he's been kind of bratty about the whole thing – how many other freshmen get to live in their own apartment in Chelsea, even if they do have to share it with their brother? And who cares what it looks like from the outside or what questionable movies the video store downstairs might sell when what they've got inside is nine hundred square feet of brand new cherry-wood floors and blank walls that they don't have to ask a landlord if it's okay for them to paint? 

Blaine knows he isn't exactly an interior design genius but they also both know that Cooper's way worse so by silent agreement Blaine has taken on the majority of the work and he's more than a little bit proud of the way he's been able to put his stamp on the place. 

Of course Cooper will always have copious opinions on anything Blaine does, and how Blaine chooses to decorate their apartment is certainly no exception. For example, Cooper apparently likes his furniture to have 'stories' to help him fine tune 'his craft' using 'the medium of improvisation'. Blaine has been dragged into these ridiculous furniture storytelling sessions twice already, and he's pretty sure trying to be the voice of an armchair didn't help him fine tune _anything_. He's genuinely scared of how much longer this might go on – plus he's not the biggest fan of sitting on something he has attempted to portray, however insane the personification of seating might be. So before things get out of hand he's gone ahead and ordered a bunch of stuff from IKEA, since he knows for a fact none of the items have any backstory whatsoever. He can handle Cooper's flat pack ire later, because it's not as if Cooper even has to do any of the work. Blaine's already assembled it all, and he thinks he's done a damn good job. 

Flopping down onto the couch, Blaine digs his phone from his pocket and thumbs through his contacts, hitting dial on Cooper's name. It rings out and goes to voicemail; pretty much what Blaine had expected.

“Hey, Coop. I just wanted to let you know that I replaced the coffee table – I ordered some stuff from IKEA, don't kill me – also a rug, two bookcases and some throw pillows, which can go in my room if you really hate them. And also milk.” Blaine considers his words and rephrases. “That is, I also bought milk. The milk didn't come from IKEA.” He looks at his watch. Rehearsals for Cooper's play have been lasting all day recently; Blaine is usually in bed before his brother gets home. “Maybe I'll catch you later if I'm still up when you get in.” 

He hangs up and then stands up, wandering over to the window and looking down to the streets below. He's not exactly sure how he's living in New York City and he's finding himself _bored_ most of the time, but he figures that will pass once school starts. He got the touristy excitement out of his system during the first two days he was here, when he'd chosen to forego unpacking boxes and hooking up the television in favour of taking the NBC Studio Tour and going to see the Statue of Liberty. 

Since then, though, he's barely left the apartment except for brief trips to buy milk or bread and he's decided that it's most definitely time to rectify that. Blaine grabs his jacket and his keys and heads out, determined to explore the neighbourhood. 

He walks for almost an hour, and he comes across an inviting-looking coffee shop just as he's about to turn around and go home for a caffeine boost. He figures the timing is kismet or whatever, so he heads inside and orders his usual drip coffee along with a slice of pecan and walnut cake that looks so good it might as well be doing a little dance on the counter top yelling at him to buy it. Choosing to take a seat in an armchair by the window, he roots around in his pocket for his headphones, plugs them into his iPhone and settles back in the chair with his coffee warming his hands. 

He spends a happy couple of hours people-watching out of the window, ordering another cup of coffee followed shortly afterwards by another slice of _that_ cake. Before he leaves he tracks back towards the counter to stuff a couple of extra dollars in the tip jar, and then heads outside to try and get his bearings so that he can figure out how to get back home.

Blaine makes a habit of it for the rest of the week. He spends his mornings pottering around the apartment - arranging things on his new bookshelves; deciding where to put the rug he just had delivered; figuring out which window gets the best sunlight in case he actually gets around to buying any plants – and then in the afternoon he heads out, taking a book with him and aiming for the little café. 

By day three, he's capable of finding his way there without getting lost en route, and the baristas are starting to recognise him. He changes his order every day, trying whatever that day's speciality coffee might be, or deciding between a slice of cake and a piece of pie depending on what mood he's in. It means the staff can't get his drink ready before he orders like they used to at the Lima Bean, but they still tell him how nice it is to see him again and how they're glad he's becoming a regular. He doesn't even care that they probably say that to all their regular customers because it's just nice to feel remembered in such a big city.

One day he gets completely lost in the world of The Princess Bride, so when somebody nudges his shoulder it makes him jump. He yanks his headphones from his ears and turns to see the tiny brunette barista – he promises himself he will learn their names soon – standing there smiling at him with her fingers through five mugs and a stack of plates balanced on the other arm.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you,” she smiles again. “You looked like you were in a world of your own there and I feel bad for dragging you back to the real one, but we're closing up.”

Blaine glances at his phone and blinks in shock when he sees the time. At least four hours have passed since he last checked the clock. “Oh, wow. I didn't realise I'd been here so long.” He looks around the place and realises that the sign on the door has already been flipped to closed, and while he's not the only person left the numbers are dwindling and everybody's gathering their things and starting to leave. 

She laughs a little. “That happens a lot. We have a very calming atmosphere.”

Blaine fumbles with his things, stuffing his book back into his bag and slinging it over his shoulder as he stands up. He picks up his own plate and empty mug with a smile, and trails after her back towards the counter.

“Thanks.” She drops the mugs into a tray of dirty cups and takes Blaine's from him. “See you tomorrow?”

Blaine nods at her and stuffs an extra ten bucks in the tip jar when she's not looking. He's in such a rush to get out of there before he outstays his welcome that only when he reaches home does he notice that his phone isn’t in his bag. His headphones are there, but his phone is missing. 

“Shit,” he mutters to himself, flopping down onto the couch and dumping the contents of his bag on the table in front of him. Once he's absolutely certain that it's missing he formulates a plan of action. Thinking back, he knows that logically the only place he could have left it was in the café, so he roots through the trash for yesterday's takeout bag and finds the phone number printed on it. He's suddenly extra glad that he talked Cooper into getting a landline for emergencies and he dials the number in the hope that somebody might still be there who could answer his call even though he knows the store is closed. But the call rings out and then clicks into a pre-recorded message with their opening hours, so he hangs the phone back on the wall and moves on to Plan B.

Plan B involves getting up early enough the next morning to be back at the café when it opens. He buys a newspaper on his way and takes a seat on a bench across the street so that he can see when they unlock the door. He tries to wait five minutes so that he doesn't look desperate but it's more like two before he crosses the street, his fingers and toes crossed that somebody has handed in his phone. 

He's the first person in the store so the seat he'd been in yesterday is unoccupied. He quickly runs his hand down the back and around the side, but when there's no sign of his phone he sighs and straightens up, approaching the counter. 

“Hi, uh-” Blaine squints at the barista's nametag, trying to be subtle about it and completely failing. “Natalie.”

Luckily she just laughs as she picks up her pen. “Hi Blaine,” she smiles, scribbling his name on the side of a fresh cup. “What can I get for you today? You're not usually here so early – change of routine?”

Blaine grimaces and half-shrugs. “Actually I was just wondering if anybody might have found an iPhone? I'm pretty sure I left mine here last night right before closing.”

“Oh, that sucks,” Natalie exclaims as she finishes scrawling on his cup. “Let me just go and check in the back for you.” 

“Thanks.”

He stands and stares at the counter full of cakes and pastries until Natalie returns empty handed. “Sorry,” she smiles sympathetically. “There's nothing in the lost and found and there's no note from Lucy about anything valuable being handed in. The best I can do is keep looking out for it for you.” She pushes a napkin and her pen towards Blaine. “Leave me your number, though, and if I hear anything I can get back to you right away.”

Blaine quickly jots down the number of the landline and his email address, explaining that email is probably the easier way to get hold of him while he doesn't have his cell, and Natalie slips the number into her apron pocket. Before Blaine heads off home to mope he buys a slice of orange and almond cake to take with him in the hope that it might improve his mood. 

He's turning to leave when Natalie calls him back, holding a cup of coffee towards him. “Medium drip,” she smiles. “On the house.”

“Oh,” he frowns, reaching out automatically and taking it from her. “I didn't order...”

“I know, but you order that more often than anything else and you look like you could use a boost this morning.” She smiles at him again and Blaine's starting to worry she's flirting with him – if she is, he hasn't helped matters by giving her his number. Before he can try to clarify or explain she rolls her eyes, shooing him away with a laugh. “There's no strings attached – take it before I change my mind.”

Blaine relaxes and nods gratefully. “Thanks.”

“Oh, and Blaine?” 

“Yeah?”

“Have you tried calling your number? You know, to see if anybody answers?”

Blaine feels like he must have taken a stupid pill to have not thought of that idea before now. On the way home he makes a detour to Best Buy and picks up a disposable cell, hoping he won't have to use it for long. He realises that he could just call from the landline but there's no facility for voicemail and if by some miracle somebody does try to get back to him, he wants to be contactable.

The first thing he does when he gets home is set up his new phone and call his old number. He's heartened by the fact it rings out before it goes to voicemail, because that means that wherever it is, it's still switched on. 

_You've reached Blaine, leave a message._

All of a sudden he realises he hadn't actually thought about what to say in this message. “Hi, um. My name is Blaine, and this is my phone that I stupidly managed to leave behind when I was getting coffee last night.” He stops for breath, trying to figure out what kind of message would make _him_ want to return a phone if he were to receive one of the same kind. 

“Basically, I'm hoping that you're some kind-hearted soul who will agree to either meet with me or mail my phone back to me. I swear you'll receive some kind of karmic reward at some unspecified point in the future if you do. I can't afford to give you an actual reward, I'm really sorry, but – actually, if you don't want to give me the whole thing back, could you just mail me my contacts? Then you can keep the phone if you want to. Or sell it, or whatever, I'm sure you're strapped for cash, isn't everybody these days? But yeah. If you could just... I'll text my address to you – me, I guess, although maybe not any more – and then I'll just... wait.”

Blaine is well aware that his message has degenerated into rambling, but he figures either this person is going to return the phone or they're not. He fires off a text message with his address – another risky move, he knows – and then heads into the kitchen to find a plate, planning to eat his cake and wallow in his stupidity.

He doesn't hear the phone beep when the text message arrives, but he eventually sees it when he picks up his phone planning to call and leave a pre-prepared and slightly less insane voicemail. _Hi, Blaine. This is your phone. I'm looking forward to coming back to you._

He replies as soon as he reads it. _Seriously? Oh my god, I love you._

He's gripping the phone so tightly while he stares at the screen willing a reply to appear that he almost throws it up in the air when it beeps shrilly as another new message comes through. _I'll meet you at the café tomorrow at ten._

Blaine has a moment of stupidity which he blames on the excitement-slash-relief of the situation when he replies with _Which one?_

_How many cafés have you left phones in recently? Please tell me you're not forgetful enough that it's more than one._

Blaine laughs to himself, a little giddy now that things are looking up. _Oh, right. Yeah. I'll be there! Thank you so much, mysterious stranger!_ He follows it up almost immediately with a more practical message: _How will I find you?_

_I'll find you. Also, Kurt. My name is Kurt. Although mysterious stranger has a nice ring to it._

Blaine clutches his new phone to his chest, grinning. _Yay! Thanks! I'll see you tomorrow, Kurt!_

–

Blaine pushes open the door to the coffee shop and looks around him. He knows he's late and out of breath and he didn't have time to do anything with his hair this morning so he's basically a hot mess right now. He's still finding it hard to believe he was careless enough to lose his phone in the first place and his faith in human nature is pretty low in general, so he's not really confident that he'll get it back even if this Kurt guy shows up. He spent most of last night concocting horror stories about things that can happen when you agree to meet up with random strangers who send you text messages and he almost didn't show up because of that, but, well, phone. He's only a month into his plan and he can't afford to buy himself out of the contract and get a new one, despite what he said in his voicemail about only wanting his contacts back. The crappy prepaid Nokia he picked up yesterday is absolutely no match for his iPhone and there's only so many times he can poke fruitlessly at the screen before remembering that this particular phone has _buttons_. Actual freaking buttons. 

“Are you Blaine?”

Blaine spins around trying to locate the voice. His eyes are still adjusting to being inside so it takes him a minute, before he spots a guy waving at him from the same table where he'd left the phone behind in the first place. Kurt – he assumes – is holding the phone out towards Blaine in his left hand.

“Oh, thank god you're still here. I'm sorry I'm late – I'm new in town and I misjudged how long it would take me to get here on a Saturday morning.” He's too embarrassed to admit that he slept in because the alarm on his replacement phone didn't wake him. He reaches out for his phone, but before he can take it Kurt pulls his hand back towards his chest, leaving Blaine grasping at fresh air. “What's wrong?”

Kurt shrugs, scrunching up his face in thought. “I feel like maybe it would be irresponsible of me to just go handing this over, willy-nilly. I need to be sure it's really yours.”

“How?”

“With a test.”

“Um... okay?”

Kurt grins and leans back in the chair, gesturing for Blaine to sit down. He unlocks the phone and swipes through a few of the screens, considering his options. “Okay, first question. What's your wallpaper?”

“My cat.” Kurt nods, accepting the answer, but Blaine continues. “Her name is Willow. I miss her – my parents and I haven't had chance to make the arrangements to move her out here with me yet.” 

“You don't get extra points for information I can't corroborate. Everybody knows the key to a good lie is in the details, you could just be trying to throw me off.”

“Oh. I'm not, though. If that helps.”

Blaine blushes slightly as Kurt raises an eyebrow and scrolls to another screen of the phone. “Who's your most frequently called number?”

“My brother.”

“Unless he's stored in your contacts as 'bro', I'm going to need a name.”

“Right. His name is Cooper. He's listed as Coop.”

Kurt nods again. “Okay. I think you pass.”

Blaine grins. “Yay!” He holds out the palm of his hand with a tentative smile. “So do I get my phone back now?”

Kurt nods again. “Just as soon as you get me some coffee. Non-fat mocha.” Blaine stands up, hesitating slightly, and Kurt smiles back at him. “I'll look after this until you get back. Wouldn't want you losing it again already.”

“And you won't just disappear with it as soon as my back is turned?”

“If I was going to do that, why bother showing up at all?”

Blaine considers, trying to keep the smile off his face. The fact that Kurt is already laughing at him isn't helping with that. “Maybe it's how mysterious strangers like you get your kicks?”

“I promise I'll be waiting right here. _With_ your phone.” He drains the last of the coffee from the cup he'd already been drinking when Blaine arrived. “Get yourself one too, and we'll see if we can eliminate at least the stranger part, shall we? I'd like to keep hold of some of my mystery, though.”

Blaine does as he's told, heading for the counter and smiling when he realises that it's Natalie who's serving. 

“Hey, Blaine,” she smiles at him. “Any luck on the phone front?”

“Actually, yeah,” he nods, gesturing towards Kurt. “That guy found it and brought it back to me.”

Natalie leans on the counter and pushes herself onto her toes until she sees Kurt, and then grins when she recognises him. “So that's a non-fat mocha for Kurt, what can I get for you?”

Blaine suddenly realises he's curious what Natalie knows about Kurt, but decides against asking anything complex when he notices the growing line of people behind him. “Medium drip again, please.”

“Coming right up.”

He pays for the drinks and then moves to the bar at the end to wait for them. He tries to sneak glances back at Kurt as he waits but he's never been particularly good at anything stealthy and Kurt spots him right away. Kurt rolls his eyes and waves the phone at him as if to say _I told you I'm not going anywhere_ any time he catches Blaine looking until finally Blaine makes it back to their table with their two cups. 

“One non-fat mocha.” 

“Thanks.” Blaine watches as Kurt takes a sip and then slides the phone across the table to him. “It's all yours.” 

“Thank you.” He pauses. “Can I ask you a question now?” 

Kurt hesitates and then nods. “Sure. Go ahead.”

“Why did you take my phone instead of just handing it in?” He holds his hands up in defence, suddenly realising how his question might be interpreted. “Not judging – I got it back after all so I'm happy. Just wondering.”

Kurt shrugs a little. “I, uh.” He frowns before he answers, and to Blaine it looks as if he's wondering that too. “I was just coming out of the bathroom and I saw you leaving – I noticed your phone right after you walked through the door so I grabbed it and headed out, thinking I could catch you, but you were gone by the time I made it outside. And when I turned around to come back inside, they'd already locked the door behind me.” He looks up at Blaine and smiles. “I figured I'd wait and see if you got in touch and if you didn't I'd call one of your contacts and get an address to mail it back to you or something. I didn't think that far ahead because lo and behold, you did get in touch.” 

“Well, thank you for being so responsible. Seriously. I really appreciate you doing this for me. A lot of people would have just sold it.”

An amused smile spreads across Kurt's face. “Especially after you gave me permission, right?” He laughs as Blaine smiles bashfully at the memory of the crazy message he'd left for Kurt. “Anyway,” Kurt continues. “It's no big deal.” He takes another drink of his coffee and then leans back, sizing Blaine up. “So, new in town?”

“Huh?” 

“You said you were late because you're new in town. How new? For school, I assume?”

Blaine nods. “Oh, yeah. It's a big change, I just moved a couple of weeks ago from Ohio. I don't think-”

Kurt's eyebrows shoot up, but Blaine doesn't notice so Kurt interrupts. “Ohio?”

Blaine looks up from his coffee and nods again. “Yeah, um, I went to school in Westerville. I mean, I don't know why you would-”

“Oh my _god_!” Kurt's hand flies to his mouth as he interrupts Blaine again, and Blaine self consciously reaches to pat down his hair in case Kurt has suddenly noticed what a mess it is. “I knew you looked familiar but I figured you just had one of those faces!”

Blaine's really not sure how he's supposed to take that. One of _what_ faces? “What?”

“You were that Warbler. The main one.” Kurt smiles while Blaine just continues to look slightly bemused. “I went to McKinley, I was in New Directions.”

“No _way_ ,” Blaine breathes. 

Kurt blushes under Blaine's sudden intense gaze. “Don't strain yourself too hard trying to remember me – I didn't have any solos when we competed against you.”

“No- wait.” Blaine reaches out, touching Kurt's hand lightly without even realising he's doing it. “I do. I remember – didn't you have a part when you guys did all those Jackson songs for Sectionals in my junior year? The Warblers were already through to Regionals so I came along to check out our competition. You were really good.” 

Blaine can tell from the way Kurt smiles that he's flattered at the genuine recognition. “Yeah. That was me.”

“So are you studying performance too? I'm majoring in musical theatre at Tisch.”

Kurt shakes his head a little and Blaine's pretty sure his memory of Kurt being amazing is an accurate one. He wants to ask why not, but he feels like that would be weird so early in the conversation. It's probably not the kind of thing people who just met should be asking each other. “No – fashion. I'm in my second year at FIT.”

“Now I feel even worse about throwing on the first clothes I found on my floor this morning.”

Kurt laughs, and Blaine thinks he looks relieved that he hadn't pushed the subject. “You look fine. You could call it crumpled chic. You're pulling it off, anyway.”

Now he's pretty sure that Kurt's just trying to be nice rather than honest, but it's still the longest conversation he's had with anybody he's not related to since he moved here so he appreciates it anyway. “Thanks.”

“You know,” Kurt starts. He's staring off out the window, looking like he's lost pretty deep in his memories. “I think you would have beaten us at Regionals that year if you'd taken the solos instead of letting that creepy jackass Sebastian have them.”

Unfortunately, Blaine has chosen this exact moment to take a mouthful of his coffee, and in an effort to keep his mouth closed so he doesn't spit it back out (attractive), he ends up snorting some of it up his nose. Hearing that name is the last thing he had expected to happen today, although in hindsight he probably should have anticipated it once the Warblers became part of the conversation. Once he finally manages to swallow what's left in his mouth and get his coughing under control, he looks back up at Kurt, who smiles apologetically.

“Sorry.”

“No, no. It's fine. I just... I still regret just handing those solos over like that. I guess I was just blinded by love.” He considers his phrasing. “No, not love. Like. Affection. I don't know.”

“I heard some poor kid from Vocal Adrenaline was almost blinded by something a little more sinister than that, thanks to Sebastian.”

Blaine looks down at his cup, avoiding Kurt's eyes. “Yeah. Rock salt slushie.” 

“Did you really date him? I thought that was just a rumour.”

Blaine nods glumly, still staring down into his coffee. “Yeah. He never acted like a – what did you call him? Creepy jackass? He didn't act like that around me. I realised afterwards that was just because he was trying to get into my pants.”

“He blackmailed my friend Rachel to try and get her to agree not to sing at Regionals so that you guys could win.” Kurt's tone isn't accusatory, but Blaine feels guilty anyway.

“That was actually the reason I broke up with him. One of the reasons. I found out about that, and the slushie, and various other stunts he'd pulled on other showchoirs in the state. I broke up with him, I went to the principal, and he was expelled. I haven't seen him since, or even really heard his name.” He looks up now, and smiles. “Hence the choking.”

“Sorry about that.”

“You already said.”

“Well I'm saying it again.” Kurt smiles and Blaine can't help but smile back. “Listen, I have to go, but we should continue this conversation sometime. I'm actually sharing an apartment with Rachel these days, I'm sure she'd be thrilled to thank you in person for your part in getting Sebastian kicked out of school.” 

Blaine nods dumbly as Kurt stands to leave. “That sounds great. Definitely.”

Kurt is gone by the time Blaine realises they didn't exchange numbers first. 

\---

**Blaine to Kurt:** I can't believe you stored your number in my phone.  
 **Kurt to Blaine:** I can't believe it took you over a week to notice I had.  
 **Blaine to Kurt:** What if I was some total creepy freak? I would be running around, unsupervised, with your number.  
 **Kurt to Blaine:** 1) I'm still not completely convinced you're NOT a freak and 2) What exactly would you do with my number, supervised or otherwise?  
 **Blaine to Kurt:** 1) Hey! 2) I don't know, I didn't think that far ahead and 3) Are you busy?  
 **Kurt to Blaine:** Now?  
 **Blaine to Kurt:** Yes.  
 **Kurt to Blaine:** Not particularly. Why?  
 **Blaine to Kurt:** I've been in New York for almost a month and you're the only new friend I've made. I was wondering if you might be free to show me around. Help me!!  
 **Kurt to Blaine:** I'll meet you at the café in an hour.

–

Blaine makes sure he's early this time, so when Kurt arrives he's already sitting on the bench outside holding two cups of coffee. He also made sure to dress a little better today – his hair is gelled and he remembered to put on some shoes where the sides are still attached to the soles all the way around instead of looking like something out of Sesame Street. 

“I got you this,” Blaine starts, smiling warmly and offering Kurt one of the cups.

Kurt returns the smile. “Thanks.” He waits while Blaine stands and gathers his things from the seat beside him. “What happened to the crumpled chic?”

Blaine blushes a little and shrugs, straightening his bow-tie nervously with his free hand. “I didn't want you to be ashamed to be seen with me. Fashion majors probably shouldn't be seen out and about in Chelsea with guys who look like hobos.”

Kurt chokes back a laugh. “You didn't look like a hobo, but thanks for saving me the embarrassment.” He turns to start walking and motions for Blaine to follow him. “So, do you live around here?”

Blaine nods as he falls into step beside Kurt. “West 23rd. I'm sharing with my brother right now, but he's hardly ever home.”

“And you said you're at Tisch?”

“Yeah.” He watches Kurt with interest. “Why?”

“We have limited time. I'm tailoring my tour to your needs.”

“You're not going to charge me for this, are you?” 

Kurt laughs as he shakes his head. It's not an unkind laugh, so Blaine grins in return. 

“Though,” Kurt starts, slowing slightly. “I would never say no to a tip.” 

Blaine snorts. “Here's a tip – don't try to be helpful by returning the phone of a lunatic stranger, because they'll latch on to you immediately and indefinitely.” He pauses. “Seriously though, is it weird that I texted you? I'm sure you have some place better to be than this.”

Kurt shakes his head and loops his arm through Blaine's, tugging him along. “I had plenty of chances to remove my number from your phone after I met you, dummy. Why do you think I held on to it for so long before I let you have it back? In case you were secretly the bad kind of crazy.”

“Oh. Right.”

“I'm happy to be your New York Yoda.”

Kurt leads them off in a sort-of circle, pointing out the bookstore he loves on Tenth Avenue, the best (safest) places to pick up takeout or good coffee if you're jonesing at three in the morning, and a couple of his favourite places to just sit and watch the world go by. 

“So,” Blaine starts, after they've been walking for around an hour. They've mostly been making small talk, not really talking about anything other than the places they're walking past. “Do you live around here too?”

Kurt laughs a little and shakes his head. “No, not any more.” He looks up at Blaine, who's watching, waiting for him to continue. “I lived on campus last year so I know the area. It turned out that dorm living wasn't really my kind of thing so Rachel and I found an apartment in Brooklyn. It's kind of tiny and the commute sucks compared to last year, but I just love having my own space.”

Blaine knows how that feels. After spending two years boarding at Dalton and having to share a room, he was thrilled when his parents informed him that because Cooper happened to be moving to New York too, they were going to buy an apartment for them both to live in. The news he was going to have his own bedroom for his first year at college had actually made Blaine do a happy dance at the time. “Does Rachel go to FIT with you?” 

Kurt snorts and then covers his mouth in embarrassment. “Please pretend I didn't just make that noise.”

Blaine laughs loudly, and Kurt grins as Blaine shrugs helpfully and replies, “What noise?”

“It's just – Rachel at fashion school is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard. No. Rachel's actually a musical theatre major at NYU, like you, except she's at Steinhardt. She's going to be studying in Florence next semester so I'll have the place to myself – we weren't sure how that would work, but her parents agreed that it made sense for her to have a base to come back to so they're covering her share of the rent while she's away.” He looked up at Blaine who was just watching him, listening carefully. “Why am I telling you all of this? I'm sure you don't care about my housing situation.”

“No, I do. My brother is usually either out or asleep, so I feel like I've barely heard another human voice in the last two weeks. This is nice.”

“Is your brother at school too?” Kurt stops dead in his tracks and gasps theatrically, covering his heart with his hand. “Do you have a twin? Are there two of you?”

Blaine cackles and laughs. “Actually it's kind of the opposite. Cooper is almost ten years older than me. He's an actor – he lived in California until a few months ago, when he somehow managed to get cast in an off-Broadway play and suddenly decided that the stage is his true calling.” He rolls his eyes at the thought. “He's kind of a ridiculous human being, but he's been like this my entire life so I'm used to it.”

“And you love him anyway?”

“Something like that.”

“I live with my step-brother's ex-fiancée.”

Blaine blinks at the apparent non-sequitur. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. And I love Finn like we're related by blood but Rachel is my best friend – so believe me, I understand complex family situations.”

They stop for tacos at a Mexican place and Kurt tells him in an exaggerated whisper that he suspects the tacos may secretly be laced with drugs because they're incredibly addictive. Blaine pays for both of them while Kurt's busy insisting he was only joking about the tip thing, but Blaine's happy to take care of it. And even though he agrees when Kurt says he'll only let Blaine pay provided he can do the honours next time, it's mostly because he gets a little thrill at the idea of there being a next time at all. 

–

They meet up again the following Saturday. Kurt turns up armed with notes from Rachel, and Blaine is just exiting the café carrying two cups of coffee when Kurt arrives. Aided by Rachel's suggestions they spend the next few hours discovering the area around Tisch before eventually stopping for more coffee in a tiny café near the school.

“I kind of feel like we're cheating on the other place,” Blaine muses as they wait for their drinks, and Kurt laughs as he hands over the cash, having finally gotten Blaine to agree to let him pay for something. They find a vacant table and take a seat. Kurt snaps his biscotti in half and offers a piece of it to Blaine, who wants to be polite and refuse but it's _biscotti_ and he just can't do it. “Thanks.”

“I could tell you wanted it by the way you were staring at it with heart-eyes before I even ordered. You were just too nice to ask.”

“That's not true!” Blaine exclaims, blushing, because it totally is. “I could have ordered it myself if I wanted it.”

“But you know I would have wanted to add it to my order, and you would have felt bad for making me pay for it. We may not have known each other for long, but I can see your manners coming a mile off, Anderson.”

Kurt's grinning and Blaine can't help but grin back and accept the damn biscotti. He dips it in his coffee and they sit in silence for a few minutes, absorbing the caffeine. 

“So you can tell me to butt out if you want, but I have a question.”

Kurt raises his eyebrows over the rim of his coffee mug and swallows his mouthful of mocha before answering. “Go on. Ask.”

“Why fashion?”

“Sorry?”

“I mean, like.” Blaine sighs and pauses, trying to rework his sentence so it doesn't come off as insulting. “I can tell you clearly have a flair for design, so that doesn't surprise me, but your singing was so _good_. How come you're not at NYU with Rachel, or something?”

Kurt's back stiffens slightly, and Blaine's all of a sudden wishing he'd just kept his mouth shut. “Contrary to popular opinion, performing isn't the be all and end all, Blaine.”

Blaine immediately shakes his head, trying to take it back. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't have – I worded that badly. It's just that I went back and watched your sectionals performance again on YouTube – Rachel was excellent at documenting all of your performances – and you were phenomenal. Any of the performing arts schools would have been lucky to have you.”

Kurt eyes soften while Blaine is talking and he relaxes back into the chair, looking slightly less like a cat about to attack. “I'm sorry. Living with Rachel has made me a little sensitive when I think somebody thinks I've made the wrong choice. She loves me, but she can't see it either.” He sighs a little. “I do love performing, but it's just not what I see myself doing long-term. I got the part of Tony in West Side Story for our musical senior year, more by default than anything else, and I really did enjoy it, but not in the way I felt like I should if I was going to devote my life to it. You know?”

Blaine nods. “And fashion makes you happy.” It's not a question, because he does get it. Kurt lights up when he talks about outfits or fabrics the same way Blaine feels when he thinks about being on stage. 

“It does.” He pauses. “I did apply to NYADA and NYU – as well as Ohio State at my Dad's insistence as a backup – but I knew after the first night of West Side Story that FIT was where my heart really was. The thrill I got from putting the costumes together was so much greater than the excitement I felt under the spotlights.” Kurt looks up at Blaine and smiles. “Does that make sense at all?”

Blaine can't help but smile back because actually, he knows exactly how that feels and he's finding himself constantly amazed by how much he and Kurt have in common. “My Dad wanted me to study English at Harvard. It became pretty clear to me that he'd been okay with Cooper's career choice because he still had one son left to get a 'real' degree, so my plans were kind of a disappointment to him.” 

Kurt reaches out to touch Blaine's hand and Blaine concentrates on not blushing. “As much as I'm sure you would have made an excellent English major, I don't think the world deserves to miss out on your talent for the sake of keeping somebody else happy. College is your first step towards being an adult and that means making the big decisions for you and you alone.”

Blaine grins. “And how's that working out for you?”

Taking a sip of his coffee while he considers for a second, Kurt beams back at Blaine. “Pretty good, I'd say.” 

–

**Kurt to Blaine:** Are you awake?  
 **Blaine to Kurt:** Almost. Why?  
 **Kurt to Blaine:** I need to call in my favor, if you're not busy.

–

When Blaine shuffles out of his bedroom after showering and giving Kurt directions to his place, Cooper is leaning against the counter, a bowl of cereal in one hand and a spoon in the other. His eyes are scrunched shut and he's muttering something Blaine can't quite make out until Cooper opens one eye and looks down, and Blaine realises there's a script open in front of his brother.

“You know I can run lines with you if you want,” Blaine yawns, pulling open the refrigerator and grabbing the orange juice. He figures that after over a month of rehearsals Cooper shouldn't actually _need_ to run lines any more, but since that apparently isn't the case he's still happy to lend a hand. 

“Thanks, Blainey, but I got this.” Cooper grins his thousand watt smile, and Blaine sighs and wishes that just once Cooper could bring himself to be genuine in front of him. 

“Whatever.” He pours his juice into a glass and shoves the carton back into the refrigerator before turning back to Cooper. “Listen, Coop, are you going out today?” 

“Yeah, I have a meeting with my manager in an hour.” He sticks the bowl in the sink and then looks back up at Blaine. “Why?”

“Just wondering.” Blaine takes a drink of his juice and takes his time swallowing it, wanting to seem nonchalant. “Just, Kurt's coming over and I was hoping you'd be.. you know. Elsewhere.”

Cooper's suddenly grinning his face off and Blaine inwardly groans at what that means. Cooper slings his arm around Blaine's shoulder and continues to grin that stupid grin. “Oh, don't worry little brother. You and Kurt will have the whole place to yourselves.”

Blaine narrows his eyes at Cooper. “Why are you talking like that?”

Cooper shrugs. “You know why. Just try and keep it to your bedroom, okay?” He gestures into the living area. “I have to sit on that couch.”

Blaine gapes at Cooper, his cheeks suddenly unbelievably hot. “Coop, Kurt and I aren't- I mean, he's not- we're just _friends_.”

Cooper doesn't look like he believes Blaine. “Oh. You've been talking about him a lot, that's all.”

“Because we're _friends_ , Coop.” Blaine's speaking through gritted teeth now and he can see Cooper's noticed, because his brother drops his arm from around Blaine's neck and shrugs. 

“If you say so,” Cooper heads out of the kitchen, grabbing his keys from the hook by the door. Just as he finishes putting on his jacket, there's a knock at the door. 

Cooper pulls the door open before Blaine can get to it and Kurt is standing on the mat with a bag slung over his shoulder, a little out of breath from rushing across town. 

“Hi, um, is Blaine-” Kurt interrupts himself mid sentence when he looks up at Cooper's face, and gapes at him. 

“Hi,” Blaine stands a little way off to the side behind Cooper, and waves for Kurt to come in. Kurt doesn't move, though. In fact he doesn't even seem to notice Blaine's there at all until Cooper clears his throat and makes a move to get out into the hallway and Kurt snaps back to reality. 

“Nice to meet you, Kurt,” he starts, making it all the way through the door and past Kurt before turning back to Blaine. “Remember what I said about the couch.”

“Get _out_ , Cooper!” Blaine's pretty sure he's blushing a deep red again, and he can only hope that Kurt hasn't noticed. He kicks the door shut as Cooper runs off down the steps to the main front door, and turns around to find Kurt staring at him.

“Your brother is the Free Credit Rating Today guy.” It's a statement, not a question, and one Blaine had to field a lot in the three years Cooper did those ads. 

“Yeah.”

“I – I've met him before. He did a workshop at my school.”

Blaine's a little surprised, but it's not a complete shock. “Oh. Yeah. He somehow got talked into doing one at Dalton my junior year – which was _mortifying_ , by the way – and loved the attention so much he started touring pretty much all of the schools in the state.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. If you ask me, I think his manager loved the idea because it meant he didn't have to deal with Cooper for a few weeks, but as far as Cooper's concerned he was basically doing charity work by sharing his 'special talent' with all of Ohio.” He takes Kurt's coat and hangs it up, using it as an excuse to compose himself. When he's satisfied his cheeks have stopped burning he turns back around to lead Kurt into the kitchen. He realises he's subconsciously avoiding the couch and that's entirely Cooper's fault, but at least by heading for the kitchen instead he's able to pass it off as being a good host and wanting to offer Kurt a drink or a snack. 

“Coffee?” Blaine holds up a cup and Kurt nods, so Blaine flicks on the coffee machine, glad that Cooper had already used it this morning and that for once he'd brewed enough for more than just himself. 

Kurt slides onto a stool at the breakfast bar and watches as Blaine moves around the kitchen, rooting in the cupboards for something edible and finding some cookies that aren't quite out of date yet. He shakes them out onto a plate just in case Kurt decides to read the packet and realises they might have been in there for a while. By the time he deposits a mug of steaming coffee in front of Kurt and sets the plate on the table, Kurt has pulled a sketch pad and pencil out of his bag, as well as a tape measure. 

“Thanks.”

Blaine's staring inquisitively at the items on the table but he decides to let Kurt bring them up when he's ready. “You're officially our first guest, by the way.”

“I'm honoured.” Kurt puts his coffee down on the table and twists in his seat to look around the room, taking in the décor. “I like it,” he comments after a while. “It's very minimalist.”

Blaine laughs a little. “That's because Cooper and I both suck at interior design so we bought as little as we could get away with without the place echoing like crazy. Plus, we're allowed pets so hopefully I'll be getting my cat back soon.”

“Willow, right?”

Blaine grins, thrilled that Kurt remembered. “Yeah. I've had her since she was a kitten – she was a get well gift from my mom when I had to miss a couple of months of school in Freshman year.” He decides not to elaborate about the dance, it tends to bring the mood down and he still needs to find out what Kurt's favor is. “I named her Willow because I spent the entire time watching Buffy reruns.”

“Cute.”

“Yeah. The thing is, though, she does love to ruin furniture. So we're basically limited to decorating with things we don't mind getting scratched to death, and putting things in places she can't reach.”

“Well, I like it. You've got a really great space, and the high walls mean there's still plenty of cat-safe potential.” 

“Isn't 'potential' usually code for 'needs a lot of work'?” Blaine grins, and Kurt laughs at him.

“It means you get to add to it as you go along, make it really _yours_. There's no rush to do that.”

Blaine blushes slightly, he can't help it. There's something about the way Kurt's looking at him that makes Blaine's chest tighten a little, and his voice is quiet when he replies. “Well, feel free to give me suggestions. I would be honoured to have you as my personal advisor.”

“Speaking of which, here's the thing,” Kurt starts, suddenly seeming nervous, which is a look Blaine hasn't seen on Kurt before. Kurt's picked up the pencil and he's twirling it around between his fingers in a way that Blaine can't help but find kind of mesmerising. “And you can say no if you want to. Really, it's not a problem.”

“How about you ask me first before you start assuming I'm going to say no,” Blaine laughs softly. His tone is gentle, and Kurt huffs out a laugh too before tucking an invisible hair back into place as if it were some kind of reflex move. 

“Right.” Kurt takes a deep breath before continuing, and the pause is long enough that Blaine's starting to imagine all kinds of horrible things that Kurt might be steeling himself to ask. “I was wondering if you would model for me.” 

Blaine bites his lip. “Model as in...”

“As in, I would like to design some outfits and I'd like you to be my model.” His eyes dart between Blaine and the pad and pencil in front of him, and back up to Blaine. “Oh, god, I mean – not model as in, you know. Life drawing.”

Blaine tilts his head back and laughs, he can't help it. Potential nudity had flashed through his mind as one of the worst case scenario options so when Kurt first asked the question there was a brief moment when that was exactly what Blaine thought he meant. He's relieved that it wasn't because he's not sure he could handle that. “For school?”

Kurt bites his lip again and shakes his head a little. “No. Well, not exactly.” He pauses. “Basically I want to design a range of outfits with a real live human being for inspiration. The classes I'm taking this semester are going to teach me certain things, like draping, and I want to try putting them into practice without the pressure of being graded on it at the end. You know, so that if it all goes wrong the only frustration will be that I've wasted my time – and yours, I guess, if you're willing – but it won't affect my grades if I don't finish.”

Blaine's still kind of stuck on the fact that Kurt wants to use him for inspiration, because that's a total honour. “Is this because you want to fix my crumpled chic?”

Kurt grins. “Not at all. In fact, it's kind of because of how much I like your crumpled chic. With the bow-ties and the highwaters – you're giving me all kinds of ideas.”

Blaine grins and reaches for a cookie. “Then I would love to be your model.”

Kurt smiles for a second, and then looks down at his fingers. “Just so we're clear... I can't pay you, or anything. There's literally nothing in this for you except being stuck with me all the time.”

Blaine shrugs, still smiling. “That's absolutely okay with me.”

Kurt grins, lifting up his sketch pad and flipping open to the first page. “I hoped you'd say yes. I already got a few ideas down.”

–

By mid afternoon Blaine is lying flat out on the couch, flipping one of Kurt's pencils between his fingers and trying to look even half as dexterous as Kurt had earlier. Kurt's curled up into the armchair, his pad balanced on his knees but not really drawing anything other than the odd line here or there.

“So what's Cooper's story?”

Blaine frowns when Kurt asks. He remembers the girls at his middle school constantly freaking out about how hot Cooper was and asking Blaine if he had a girlfriend. It did not do wonders for Blaine's confidence that the only thing his friends cared about was whether or not his brother was available. “What do you mean?”

“Well, when he did that workshop at McKinley, he was all about how Broadway is dead and nobody goes to theatre, and ignore your scene partner because it makes your acting choices more reliable.”

Blaine relaxes back into the couch and just laughs at the memory of his own experience of the Cooper Anderson Masterclass. “Yeah, well. Like I said. He's a ridiculous human being. He's completely anti-Broadway until his agent points out there might be a part for him and then suddenly oh, it's the best thing ever.” He sighs. “I won't complain, though. I'd be living in dorms if he wasn't here.”

“And he got a part, right? So at least it worked.” 

Blaine just hums in response. “I guess.”

Kurt cocks his head slightly and smiles at Blaine. “No you don't. You have an opinion, I can tell.”

“It's just...” Blaine sighs and wriggles into a sitting position, propping himself up on his elbows. “It's a terrible play. I read the script.”

“How terrible?”

“It's meant to be pro-gay rights, right? It's set a hundred years in the future and basically everybody is gay now. They outlawed heterosexuality in order to try and keep birth rates down-”

“Wait, _seriously_?!”

“Yeah. So they've done that, and then the main character in the play – which of course has to be Cooper – has been cryogenically frozen and when he wakes up he's in this future where he's basically an outcast for being straight. And Cooper is so excited, Kurt. He keeps telling me how he's doing this for me, to bring attention to 'our situation' – his words, not mine – but oh my god, Kurt. The script is just _so offensive_. In like a hundred different ways.”

“Wow.”

“All the lesbians turn out to be faking.”

“Wow.”

Blaine suddenly leaps over the back of the couch, padding off into the kitchen and finding Cooper's script still lying on the counter, retrieving it before he heads back into the living room towards Kurt. “It seems like their main way of portraying the fact that they're in the future is by putting the word 'hover' in front of everything. Hover car. Hover ball.” He passes the script to Kurt who starts to thumb through it while Blaine lies back down on the couch. 

“'It's not my fault if I like to take it up the front'?! Jesus Blaine. You weren't kidding.”

“He's going to expect me to come and see it. I don't know if I can handle that.”

“I'll come.”

Blaine blinks. “You- you will?”

“It's going to be a train wreck. We can sit in the back and mock, and then when Cooper asks, you don't have to lie and pretend you enjoyed yourself because you really will have had a good time – it just won't have been for exactly the right reasons. Now,” Kurt puts his sketch pad down and stands up, reaching for Blaine's hand and pulling him to his feet too. “Can we act some of this out? Please?”

Blaine giggles and nods, taking the page Kurt is thrusting at him. “Do you want to be the straight guy pretending to be gay in order to be allowed to run for governor, the gay ex-campaign manager who gets to actually be out and proud now he's in this insane heterophobic future and runs for governor himself, or the lesbian campaign manager who turns out to be secretly straight?”

Kurt blinks. “I didn't understand anything you just said. Just tell me which one is Cooper's part and let's get started.”

–

When Cooper gets home, it's already dark outside but Kurt is still there. There's an America's Next Top Model marathon playing on the TV, takeout boxes from the Thai place a few blocks away that Kurt recommended are scattered on the floor, and Blaine is standing on the coffee table. His legs are spread slightly apart and his hands are planted on his hips like he thinks he's Superman. Kurt is kneeling on the floor behind the table with his tape measure held up the back of Blaine's left leg, and neither of them hear Cooper come in until he's standing right beside them.

“Squirt, when I said not on the couch, I meant keep it in your _bedroom_.”

Blaine jumps at the sound of his brother's voice, spinning around and almost kneeing Kurt in the face as he leaps down from the table. He's pretty glad that the table hasn't collapsed under his weight – considering he assembled it himself he had half expected it to fall apart as soon as he stepped up there.

“Coop!” Blaine grins, feeling happy enough from the day he and Kurt have spent that he can choose to ignore Cooper's lewd subtext. “Kurt is making pants for me!”

Kurt snorts. “I think that's probably my cue to leave.”

Blaine helps Kurt gather up the sketches, stationery and random pieces of fabric that are scattered around the floor. They'd been careful to put Cooper's script back in the kitchen as soon as they'd exhausted themselves from laughing, in case he noticed it had moved and asked questions. “I'll walk you out.”

“It's fine, really. I can see the door from here. Technically even if you stay where you are, you're seeing me out.”

“See you Saturday for coffee?”

Kurt nods and smiles as he straightens his bag on his shoulder and looks back up at Blaine. “Our new tradition, wouldn't miss it. I want to hear all about your first week at school.”

Blaine waits until Kurt's gone and then picks up the empty Thai containers and takes them into the kitchen to drop them in the trash, where he finds Cooper with his head in the refrigerator. “You can stop counting your beers, Coop, we didn't have any.”

Cooper straightens up and pulls out a beer, not denying that's what he was doing, and leans back against the fridge after he closes it. “You seriously expect me to believe there's nothing going on between you two?”

Blaine rolls his eyes. “Yes. I do. Because there isn't.”

Cooper shrugs as he twists the cap off his bottle. “Well, maybe there should be.”

Blaine chooses to ignore Cooper's comments as he sits back down in front of the TV, flicking Next Top Model off and channel hopping in search of something the two of them can agree on. It's not as if Kurt's not hot, because he absolutely is. And it's not that he hasn't considered whether there could be something between them, because the thought has definitely crossed his mind. But they've only been friends for a few weeks, and before today they haven't spent more than a couple of hours straight in each other's company. 

The last time he met a cute guy and fell for him in such a short period of time, Sebastian happened. Blaine's not ready for something like that to happen again. Right now, he knows he's much happier getting to know Kurt as friends than trying to push anything further and ruining it all.

–

**Blaine to Kurt:** Sorry. Have to cancel this afternoon. Think I might be dying. 

–

“Blaine?”

Blaine groans from where he's curled up under his covers. He's not sure he can move, but he's certain that even if he can, he doesn't want to.

“Wow, you look awful.” 

Blaine moves the blanket away from his eyes just enough to realise the voice belongs to Kurt, who is standing in his bedroom doorway, talking to him.

“You're in my bedroom,” is all he can think of to say before he closes his eyes again. His brain's all fuzzy.

“Cooper let me in, he told me to follow the stench of death.” Blaine hears Kurt step a little closer. “You look disgusting, by the way.”

Blaine makes a feeble attempt at sticking his tongue out in Kurt's general direction. “I don't think we've been friends long enough for those kinds of insults.”

“I brought soup. I made it myself.”

Blaine's reply is instant. “You're forgiven.”

He feels the bed shift beneath him and he squints up at where Kurt is sitting. “You'll get sick.”

“I'll survive.” Kurt's fingers are cold against Blaine's forehead and Blaine subconsciously pushes his head up into Kurt's cool hand, which makes Kurt chuckle. “Okay, you have the freshman flu. I had it last year, _and_ after that I nursed Rachel through it, which was a horrible nightmare for all parties involved. You're going to survive too. How long have you been in bed?”

Blaine shrugs, sinking back against the pillow when Kurt's hand disappears. “Coupla days?”

“Can you stand up?”

Blaine nods. He knows it will take pretty much all of his energy, but he's made it to the bathroom and back a few times so he's sure he can do it.

“I want you to take a shower and I'm going to change your sheets.”

Blaine nods again and follows Kurt's instructions exactly, too tired to protest. He moves slowly to the bathroom and manages to peel off his clothing and step into the shower without incident. The hot water feels so good as it thumps against his skin and he leans back against the cool tiles, letting it just wash over him. It's making him feel a little more human and after a few minutes of just standing there, he pushes himself upright, washes his hair and scrubs himself down.

He turns off the water and pulls back the curtain to discover a pile of clean clothes sitting on top of the toilet; his favourite sweatpants – god, it's like Kurt _knows_ ; clean underwear, and an old t-shirt. A thrill runs down his spine when he realises this means Kurt was in the room while he was showering, but he chalks it up to the fever and gets dressed as quickly as his aching bones will allow.

Kurt is just tucking in the last corner of his bed sheets when Blaine finally pads out of the bathroom, patting pathetically at his head with a towel in a way that he knows isn't actually drying his hair at all. Kurt smiles when he realises Blaine's there. “Better?”

“So much. Thank you.”

Kurt shrugs. “All I did was order you around a little.” He looks at his watch. “Listen, I have an hour before I have to meet Rachel for lunch – she was there when I picked up your message about not being able to make coffee so she decided today would be the perfect time to run through some ideas for her Halloween costume.”

“Go, seriously. I'm fine.” Blaine smiles, though he has to admit he's a little sad Kurt's leaving. He hasn't been looked after like this in forever.

Kurt shakes his head. “Get back into bed first. I'm not letting you sleep with wet hair while you're sick.”

Blaine's a little self conscious as he walks across the room towards Kurt and slides under the covers; even more so when Kurt sits back down beside him and takes the towel from his hands. He shifts around, lifting one of Blaine's pillows from the bed and arranging it in his lap, and then tugs gently at Blaine's arm until he gets the hint and settles his head down on the pillow.

“Now, relax.” Kurt's voice is soothing and Blaine closes his eyes, a tiny groan escaping his lips as Kurt massages his head with the towel. After a few minutes Kurt discards the towel and nips at Blaine's shoulders with his fingers, rubbing around his neck and up to his temples. Blaine can feel the woolly-headed feeling that the shower had done away with creeping back up on him and gives in to it, Kurt's hands running through his hair and helping him feel the most relaxed he's felt in days as he drifts back to sleep. 

–

**Kurt to Blaine:** Hope you wake up feeling better. Sorry I had to go. The soup is in the refrigerator. 

–

It's another twenty four hours before Blaine wakes up for anything more than a trip to the bathroom and ventures out into the kitchen for his soup. It's the first time he's tasted Kurt's cooking and he's honestly quite happy to let Kurt cook every meal he eats for the rest of his life, if it's all this good. He texts Kurt to thank him and tell him exactly that. He's curled up in the armchair practically licking the bowl when Cooper comes home and stops dead in his tracks. 

“It's alive!” Blaine rolls his eyes at the mocking tone in Cooper's voice and just carries on concentrating on his bowl. Cooper takes off his jacket and comes over, perching on the arm of the couch. “If you're feeling better...”

Blaine looks up as Cooper trails off. This sounds suspiciously like Cooper's 'I need a favour' tone of voice. “Mmm?”

“I have a date tonight and I was wondering if you might be able to be, you know. Elsewhere.”

Blaine stands up to take his bowl to the kitchen and dumps it in the sink, though he thinks he's done such a good job cleaning it already that even a cat would be proud. “You're bringing her here?” 

Following Blaine into the kitchen, Cooper sighs. “Not exactly... hopefully, you know...” Cooper wiggles his eyebrows and Blaine suddenly wrinkles his nose in realisation. “Later?”

“Oh God, you suddenly brought back my urge to vomit.”

Cooper thumps Blaine on the shoulder and Blaine laughs. “Please?”

He pretends to look put out, but Blaine doesn't really mind so much. This is the kind of relationship he'd always wanted to have with Cooper – one that's less _your steps are all a beat out of time_ and _you're a little flat in the chorus_ and more sharing and caring, or something. “I guess I could find someplace to go.”

“You're the best, Blainey,” Coop grins as Blaine heads back into his room, clicking the door shut and collapsing onto the bed. 

“I know,” Blaine calls through the door, and he hears Cooper laugh as he wriggles back under his covers.

He's tired out now - a short walk, a meal and a brief conversation is the most he's actually done in days. He figures he'll just take a nap and then he'll shower and go out. He found a twenty four hour gym last week before the plague descended and joined up on a whim; maybe now's the time to check it out and try to sweat the last of the fever out of him. 

When he wakes up, though, it's dark. He rubs at his eyes with the heel of his hand, reaching for his phone to check the time and finds a new text from Kurt. _I'm not your slave, Blaine! But I'm glad you're feeling better. :)_ He has to scroll up to check what he'd said to make Kurt reply that way and vaguely remembers asking Kurt to cook all of his meals. He realises it's after midnight and just as he decides not to reply to Kurt's text until morning, he hears a noise. 

It's a noise he recognises and one he'd tried for a long time to forget. He's suddenly having a vivid flashback to when he was seven and he'd walked into the bathroom to find Cooper jerking off. To this day Blaine maintains that was Cooper's fault for not locking the door – seriously, who doesn't lock the door – but it was a deeply unpleasant experience for both of them. 

“Oh my _god_ ,” he whispers, reaching under his bed for a shoe to throw at the wall. He opens his mouth to yell out that Cooper doesn't live alone any more and could he maybe be a little bit more considerate, but before he can do that he hears a female voice echoing his _oh, my god_ through the wall and suddenly this is an entirely different scenario than Blaine had anticipated. 

Blaine's not sure which is worse; the thought of hearing Cooper jerking off or the thought of hearing him have sex. All of a sudden he realises that technically this is his own fault, because he was supposed to be out, and he's been asleep so Cooper probably assumed Blaine had kept up his end of the bargain and left the apartment empty. 

Dropping the shoe onto the floor he instead reaches for his headphones, quickly plugging them into his phone and pressing play on the first song he finds. He ends up skipping the first ten songs because no matter what comes on, it's about sex, and he really _really_ needs to update his playlists after this. It's Rihanna followed by Salt-N-Pepa followed by John Mayer and there's just no escaping what's going on next door. He finally settles on Katy Perry because it's easy and familiar and calming, and it's just unfortunate that in the gap between tracks he gets to hear some girl he's never met crying out his brother's name in the throes of passion.

Blaine's pretty sure he's going to need therapy after this.

But if he can thank Cooper for one thing, it's that he hasn't thought about how ill he feels in a while. He turns up the volume as Teenage Dream kicks in and scrunches his eyes closed, relaxing his shoulders and letting himself melt back into the pillows. 

He remembers the most relaxed he's felt in a while – yesterday when Kurt was rubbing his neck and running his fingers through his hair. He concentrates on the memory of that, imagining Kurt's there right now doing the same thing again, and it's not long before he's almost completely fallen asleep. If he's lucky when he wakes up tomorrow, he might be able to pretend this was all a horrible, horrible nightmare. 

–

Blaine meets Rachel for the first time a week later, when she and Kurt invite Blaine to be the first dinner guest in their apartment. Blaine offers to assist with the cooking and Kurt is only too willing to accept the help and immediately shoos Rachel from the kitchen. She takes charge of the music and lays the table, and at one point Blaine catches her mouthing 'I like him!' at Kurt when she thinks he's not looking. Or maybe she knows he is, and that's the point, he's not sure.

When they sit down to dinner she produces a bottle of champagne and uncorks it.

“My Dads gave me this when they were here helping us move in,” Rachel explains as she pours a small amount into Blaine's glass. “I've been saving it for an occasion like tonight.”

Kurt covers the top of his glass with his hand when she tries to pour some for him. “No, no. None for me. Not after last time.” 

Rachel rolls her eyes and reaches out to try and prise Kurt's fingers from the rim, but he just grips it tighter. “Kurt, 'last time' was when you were fifteen years old and you were drinking wine for breakfast. You're not going to throw up on anybody's shoes here in the safety of our apartment if you have a glass with dinner this one time.”

Blaine's eyes light up as Rachel scolds Kurt. “Whose shoes did you throw up on?” Tonight suddenly seems like an even more awesome idea than he had initially thought, if he's going to get dirt like this from Rachel.

Kurt replies “nobody” at the same time as Rachel says “our guidance counsellor,” and Blaine can't help but burst out laughing.

“It's not _funny_ , Blaine! It's a traumatising memory for me.”

Rachel gives up on trying to free Kurt's glass from his grasp and pours some champagne in her own instead. “I'm sure it's more traumatising for Ms Pillsbury, Kurt. She's the one who was vomited on.”

Blaine cackles again and Kurt turns to glare at him. While his attention is on Blaine, Rachel quickly switches her full glass with Kurt's empty one, and then fills that too. 

“If it makes you feel any better,” Blaine starts, patting Kurt's hand sympathetically as he talks. “Last time I got drunk I made out with a girl.”

Kurt's face is such a picture of shock Blaine wishes he had his camera with him. “Maybe we should just put all of the alcohol away. Right now.”

Blaine laughs. “I was also fifteen, so that's something we have in common. I was dragged to a party hosted by some of the girls at our sister school by a friend who was a senior at the time. There was drinking, there was spin the bottle, and...” He trails off, shrugging. He's not even sure why he started telling this story, because it's not something he likes to relive if he can help it. Luckily Kurt doesn't press him any further, so Blaine shrugs again and changes the subject. “Anyway, I agree with Rachel. One glass with dinner won't hurt either of us. But if you really don't want to drink it, you should at least have some in your glass while we toast to your new home.”

Kurt sighs and nods in defeat, picking up his glass as Rachel stands to make the toast. 

“To new friends, old friends, and our very own place to live.” Rachel clinks her glass against Kurt's and then Blaine's, and then moves to sit back down. “Also Blaine, in the interest of full disclosure I should let you know that Kurt _also_ made out with a girl not that long ago, so you have nothing to worry about with regards him holding that against you.”

“Rachel!”

Blaine snorts into his champagne and blushes as he accidentally blows bubbles in it in the process. “Um... okay?”

Kurt buries his face in his hands for a second and then takes a deep breath and looks up at Blaine. “Her name was Brittany, she was a cheerleader, nobody was drunk, and there's a longer story behind it which maybe I'll tell you some day.” He glares at Rachel. “Some day when _I_ decide to tell it.”

“I just-”

“Do you want me to tell Blaine about the time you stalked Mr Schuester? No? How about the thing with Sunshine and the crack house?”

“She forgave me for that, Kurt-”

“I didn't think so.” Kurt smiles sweetly and Blaine giggles quietly into his wine glass again. “So how about you let me handle telling Blaine stories about me, yes?”

Rachel nods meekly and Blaine finally dares to pick up his fork. He's enjoying watching the dynamic between the two of them enough that he'd managed to hold off diving right into the food as soon as the plate was set in front of him, but it smells too good to wait much longer. 

“This looks amazing, Kurt,” he breathes. 

Rachel beams and picks up her own knife and fork, the tension diffused. “Kurt's good to me. If we're eating together he'll try and make sure it's vegan.”

Kurt shrugs like it's nothing as he loads his fork and then leans close enough to Blaine that Blaine can feel Kurt's breath on his cheek. “If you need meat, I have a stash,” he whispers, and Blaine tries to hold back a laugh before turning his head so that his own lips brush close to Kurt's ear. 

“I can cope, but thank you,” he smiles. “Also, you're going to tell me the rest of those Rachel stories later, right?”

Kurt smirks. “What do you think?”

“What does he think about what?” Rachel interrupts, and Kurt rolls his eyes with a grin before turning his attention back to his food. Blaine figures that's a yes.

“I asked about me chances of him sharing his recipe,” Blaine lies. “I'm sure my brother would appreciate some decent home cooking occasionally and stuffed artichokes are totally his kind of thing.”

“Oh,” Rachel nods, accepting that as an answer and taking another swig of the champagne in her glass. “He's usually very secretive about his recipes.”

“That's mostly because I don't want you attempting to cook them and burning down the kitchen, Rachel,” Kurt laughs. “I don't care if Blaine burns down his own kitchen. He's welcome to the recipe.”

“Um, thank you?” Blaine laughs, and he notices that Rachel looks put out by Kurt's comments.

“I'm an excellent cook when I'm given the chance, _Kurt_. You're just overprotective of the kitchen. I think you got too used to cleaning up after Finn.”

“He burnt my crock pot,” Kurt sighs sadly.

“I know, Kurt,” Rachel smiles, patting his hand gently. “But he bought you a new one, and I promise I won't ever touch your crock pot.”

“These are the best stuffed artichokes I've ever had,” Blaine declares, trying to bring the mood back up. He reaches for the champagne bottle, noticing that despite his complaints earlier Kurt has managed to finish his, and starts topping up all three of the glasses. “What's your secret?”

“There are sun dried tomatoes in the stuffing,” Kurt explains, immediately brightening at the question. “I tried a lot of recipes and this one was my favourite.”

“It's divine,” Blaine agrees. “My mom makes one with anchovies which is good, but not this good. And obviously not vegan-friendly,” he adds, almost feeling like he shouldn't even mention such a thing in front of Rachel. 

Rachel giggles at the look on Blaine's face and Blaine starts to laugh too. By the time they've all finished eating the artichokes Blaine's face hurts from smiling; during the meal Rachel has volunteered the information from the stories Kurt brought up earlier, and in return Kurt has finished filling Blaine in on the rest of the Brittany saga.

The champagne just about stretches to a third glass for each of them, which Rachel pours while Kurt stands up to fetch dessert. Blaine stands too, picking up the dirty plates from his and Rachel's places, and Kurt immediately rolls his eyes and tries to take them off him. 

“You're the guest. Rachel should be doing this.”

“It's fine, I don't mind,” Blaine insists, letting Kurt take the plates but still following him into the kitchen with some serving dishes. “I like to help.”

“And I'm very good at pouring,” Rachel calls out in a sing-song voice, draining the last of the champagne from her glass before filling it with what's left in the bottle. 

Kurt snorts and looks over his shoulder at Blaine with a grin. “Yeah, that sounds accurate.” He looks at Blaine with a sigh as he opens the refrigerator. “You're going to insist on helping, aren't you?”

“I've been told I'm irritatingly helpful,” he laughs as he holds out a hand to take something from Kurt. “What are we having?”

“Spring cheesecake parfaits,” Kurt replies, pulling the first one from the shelf and handing it to Blaine. “Graham cracker streusel, rhubarb compote, and white chocolate cheesecake mousse.” 

“Wow, this looks...” Blaine looks between the glass and Kurt with wide eyes. Kurt has served the desserts in pina colada glasses and topped the mousse with the freshest looking strawberries Blaine thinks he's ever seen. “My mouth is watering already.”

“I know. Don't tell Rachel, but vegan desserts are almost more fun to make than regular ones, and just as tasty. Can you grab the spoons?” Kurt points to a drawer near the sink as he takes the other two glasses from the fridge. “The long ones, please.”

Blaine does as he's told and follows Kurt back to the table to find Rachel standing by the stereo, fiddling with her iPod. She smiles as she evidently finds what she's looking for and sets it playing, grinning as she comes back to join them at the table. “I made a special dessert playlist,” she explains as she takes her seat.

“What's a-”

“Don't ask. Please don't ask,” Kurt interrupts. 

“I'm glad you asked, Blaine!” Rachel beams, and Kurt drops his head into his hand with a groan. “I personally feel that the music during the entrées should be much more mellow, and preferably instrumental. By the time you reach dessert, the mood is up, people are having fun, and a good mix of showtunes and pop music is perfect.” She looks down at her dessert and picks up her spoon. “And singing along is encouraged.”

Blaine looks back and forth between Rachel and Kurt, thankful that he has a mouthful of white chocolate mousse and can't decide how to respond. Kurt looks like he firmly does _not_ encourage singing along during the dessert course, and Blaine's inclined to agree. At least, not when the dessert in question is this good. 

“Rachel,” Kurt sighs, licking his spoon clean before loading it up again while he talks. “If you want to sing, you should go to karaoke.”

“Oh! Karaoke!” Rachel exclaims, sitting up straighter at the suggestion. “I saw a place a couple of blocks from here that does karaoke. We should all go!”

Kurt looks across at Blaine and raises his eyebrows with a slight shrug that Blaine takes to mean _it's up to you?_

“I _love_ karaoke.”

Which is how, less than an hour later, they find themselves walking into a karaoke bar in the middle of Brooklyn. Rachel is shrugging off her jacket before they're even in the door, handing it out for Blaine to take without even looking at him, winding through chairs and up to the stage. 

“Doesn't she want to look at the song choices first?” Blaine wonders aloud, frowning slightly as they sit down at an empty table near the stage. 

“She doesn't need to,” Kurt smiles. “Just watch.”

Blaine watches as Rachel takes the stage, microphone in hand, and smiles a little shyly before completely blowing everybody away with her rendition of Don't Rain On My Parade. She finishes the song and does a little curtsey, skipping back off to the side to pick her next song. This time she takes a few minutes to consider her options from the selection available, and Kurt leans over to Blaine.

“You've just witnessed the Rachel Berry Special,” he grins. “She's just used intimidation tactics to guarantee we've pretty much got the stage to ourselves for the rest of the night. I've seen her do that in places where they don't even _have_ that song on their list, she'll just come out and sing it unaccompanied.”

“Wow,” Blaine breathes. “That's incredibly devious, but also incredibly awesome.”

“You should probably take advantage of it and go pick your song before she gets so far into the swing of things she won't even let you join her.”

So Blaine does exactly that, and after Rachel finishes her next song he takes the stage with a grin and bounces through an energetic rendition of Last Friday Night. He and Rachel take it in turns for the next few numbers until Rachel appears behind Blaine while he's trying to pick his next song.

“We need to get Kurt up here,” she announces and he turns around to look at her. She's staring at Kurt, her arms folded, and she looks very determined. Blaine chuckles softly and turns back to the book. 

“I asked him. He said he's fine watching.”

“Hmm. Well, he's not fine.” She looks back and him and then elbows Blaine out of the way so that she can take a closer look at the choices. When she finds the one she wants, she taps on the page with her middle finger and Blaine cranes his neck to look. “This one is perfect for three of us.”

“Love Shack?”

She nods. “He won't be able to resist. You start, I'll come in for the verse. And we'll get him in for the chorus.”

When the song starts, Blaine sees Kurt smile to himself and start mouthing the words. Realising this actually was a good idea, he grins at Rachel and when she takes over for the first verse he jumps off the stage, tugging at Kurt's hands. “Come on.”

Kurt shakes his head but Blaine can see a smile playing at his lips and there's something in his eyes that looks excited. Blaine pouts a little and puts on his best puppy dog eyes and bingo, Kurt is rolling his eyes and standing up. When Blaine hands over the microphone Kurt leaps up onto the stage and Blaine laughs, his hands resting on Kurt's hips as he dances close behind him. 

Rachel squeals as they reach the chorus, skipping to Blaine's side to share the microphone with him, and then when they get to the second verse they step aside in unison and throw their arms towards Kurt, gesturing for him to take over the solo. 

They sing the rest of the song as if they'd rehearsed it, slipping seamlessly between singing together and taking lines for solos. When they reach the end they join hands, breathlessly taking a bow before Kurt and Blaine make a move to step off the stage.

However Rachel stops them, handing her microphone to Blaine and telling Kurt to keep his. “You two are doing the next one, I already set it up.”

Kurt raises an questioning eyebrow at Blaine and Blaine shrugs. “News to me.” When he turns to ask Rachel which song she chose he realises she's already gone to take her seat, so he stands and waits for it to begin. When the music starts he recognises it immediately as _Accidentally In Love_ by the Counting Crows, and he's certainly glad that they're in a bar so the lighting is poor, because he can already feel his cheeks heating up. 

He bites his lip and drops the microphone to his side so it can't pick him up, and leans towards Kurt. “Is she trying to tell us something?” he mumbles. Kurt laughs a little, though Blaine notices he does look slightly uncomfortable. 

“Rachel isn't good at doing 'subtle'. If she was trying to tell us something, she would actually tell us something,” he whispers back, and that's all there's time for before the first words appear on screen and Blaine launches into the song. Kurt joins in on the second line, and he's got to admit that Rachel picked a great track for their voices. Instead of getting caught up in the lyrics Blaine tries to just enjoy the moment and by the time they're halfway through the song the two of them have even got some synchronised dance moves going. 

Rachel gives them a standing ovation when they're done, clapping enthusiastically for a minute before leaping back onto the stage herself. She takes Blaine's microphone and shoos him from the stage, pushing Kurt to follow him with a hissed “You really ought to sing more often, you know.”

Kurt and Blaine take their seats, watching as Rachel performs a flawless version of Sk8er Boi that Blaine's pretty sure is better than he's ever heard Avril Lavigne sing it. 

Midway through the song, Kurt shuffles his chair closer so he can talk to Blaine without yelling. “That was fun,” he murmurs. “Thanks for getting me up there.”

“It was all Rachel,” Blaine shakes his head with a small smile. “But you're right, it was fun. We sounded good.”

“We should pick some songs for next time, so that Rachel doesn't get any more chances to say 'I told you so',” Kurt laughs, and Blaine definitely agrees with that. He's also excited at the suggestion of a next time, and that's an even split excitement at spending more time with Kurt, and just general enthusiasm for karaoke. 

Blaine opens his mouth to agree, but before he can speak he spots a guy around their age head up to the side of the stage and start to flip through the song book. When he's made his selection he leans against the wall, glaring at them as if daring them to try to take his spot in the line.

“Looks like the natives are getting restless,” Kurt smiles, reaching over for Rachel's jacket so that they can make a quick getaway once she's done with this song. “It's late. You should sleep on our couch.”

“Oh, I couldn't put you out. I'll just take a cab.”

“I insist. It would put me out more to be pacing the apartment waiting for you to text and let me know you're home safely,” Kurt points out, turning around as Rachel steps off the stage and he hands her jacket to her. “Tell Blaine he should stay at our place tonight.”

Rachel's eyes widen and she nods quickly. “It's late. You should absolutely stay.”

Blaine figures he can't possibly say no now, and if he's honest he is kind of tired. The champagne earlier had made him slightly giddy, but now the effects had worn off he was just starting to feel sleepy and the idea of not having to trek back across Manhattan sounded really good right now.

They walk the few blocks back to Kurt and Rachel's place, with Rachel skipping a few steps in front of Kurt and Blaine. “Is she always this excitable?” Blaine questions, and all Kurt can do is laugh wearily. 

“Twenty four hours a day, yeah. You get used to it.”

“She's fun,” Blaine admits, looping his arm through Kurt's. Somewhere in the back of his mind, his brain is chastising him for being too tactile with Kurt, but he likes to touch and his lack of inhibitions when he's tired have always been a problem for him. 

Kurt doesn't seem to mind, however, and presses closer to Blaine's side. “Tell me if you still feel that way in the morning. The couch is right in the middle of her morning vocal warm-up zone.”

“Bring it on.”

–

The following morning Rachel does indeed wake Blaine as she warms up her voice for the day. It's Sunday, and he really wants to just pull his pillow back over his head, but he feels like that's probably bad manners when you're sleeping on somebody else's couch. He's still debating whether or not he can pretend he's still asleep when Rachel spots him, and the decision is made.

“Oh, good morning, Blaine. Would you like to join me? Kurt usually declines in the mornings, but I feel like you might be more on my wavelength since you're starting a musical theatre program too.”

Blaine makes a noise that he thinks vaguely sounds like 'no, thank you' but in reality sounds more like 'nngfmgu' and then forces himself up onto his elbows, blinking at his watch. It's six in the morning and it was definitely after three by the time they made it to bed, so he can't even understand how Rachel is conscious, let alone singing in the middle of the lounge.

Rachel clearly takes his response as a no as she's right back into doing her scales, but breaks off again to point Blaine in the direction of the kitchen. “Coffee? You'll have to make your own I'm afraid, I don't drink it before noon.”

Nodding dumbly, Blaine pads in the direction of the kitchen and manages to make himself a cup of coffee without really fully opening his eyes. By the time he finishes drinking it he's a little more alert, and after a quick trip to the bathroom to splash water on his face he's awake enough to set off home.

“Thank you for letting me stay, Rachel. And tell Kurt the same,” he smiles, and Rachel smiles back as she waves him out of the door without once breaking off from her scales.

–

**Blaine to Kurt:** I'm home safe, you can stop worrying.  
 **Kurt to Blaine:** Before eight and you're already home? I knew Rachel would chase you away. 

–

The next few weeks pass in a blur for Blaine. His schedule at Tisch is incredibly demanding, but he hadn't expected anything less and he loves it. Kurt is busy too, but they somehow always manage to free up their Saturdays to hang out with each other. Every time they meet, Kurt's a little further along with Blaine's outfits; sometimes he'll bring a piece of fabric to test the colour against Blaine's complexion, or instead of going out for coffee Kurt will come to Blaine's and make him try on half sewn shirts. By mid-October Blaine's wardrobe boats two new pairs of pants, a shirt and a waistcoat, and Kurt still isn't out of ideas. 

There's one Saturday in November when Kurt calls during the week to let Blaine know that Finn is coming to visit and he'll be caught up playing host, so he won't be able to meet for coffee. Blaine is a little disappointed, not least because he's heard so many tales he'd quite like to meet this Finn guy, but he assures Kurt it's fine and they can meet during the week to catch up instead.

Blaine occupies himself during the day, and he's lounging on the sofa that evening when he gets a text from Kurt. _Can I come over?_ He sits up straight while he composes a reply. All he had planned for the night was to eat ice cream and maybe get out his Firefly box set and watch it straight through. _Of course. Something wrong?_

He gets a response ten minutes later which completely ignores the question. _Thanks. I'll be there in an hour._ Blaine knows Kurt could get across town quicker than that if he really needed to, so he takes that as a confirmation that Kurt isn't in any physical or imminent danger and decides not to ask any more questions until Kurt arrives.

A little over an hour later there's a knock on the door. Blaine opens it to be greeted by Kurt smiling at him and holding up a tub of ice cream. “Got spoons?” he asks by way of greeting, and Blaine smiles back at him and nods, stepping out of the way to let Kurt inside.

Kurt immediately makes himself at home, hanging his jacket on the hook by the door and toeing off his shoes before bending down to pull off his socks too. He stuffs them into his shoes and crosses to the sofa, sitting down and curling his legs up underneath him. Blaine meets him there a minute later with two spoons, two glasses and two cans of Diet Coke. 

“Did I interrupt something important?” Kurt asks, nodding at the television where Blaine had paused his DVD to answer the door. 

Blaine shakes his head as he reaches for the remote to switch it off. “Nope, just some Firefly. My favourite way to relax.”

Kurt leans forward and picks up the box from where it's lying on the coffee table and scans the blurb. “I've never actually seen this. Sam had a copy and I've heard nothing but good things, but I've never got around to watching it.”

Blaine's first reaction is that he wants to ask who Sam is. He's intrigued by Kurt's use of past tense, so he would guess at an ex, but he doesn't feel like now is the time to ask. He's not sure if it's weird that they've become so close but they've never really discussed each others' past. He decides to focus on the second part of Kurt's answer and grins at him. “Oh, you've _got to_.” Instead of flicking the television off, he switches back to the DVD menu and presses play on the pilot episode, starting it from the beginning again. He figures Kurt will talk when he's ready, and in the meantime Blaine is firmly of the opinion that Firefly heals all wounds.

Blaine is right about Kurt talking. About an hour into the pilot episode, Kurt takes the (now three quarters empty and mostly melted) ice cream tub when Blaine offers it to him, and digs his spoon in. “Nothing's wrong, by the way.”

Blaine tears his eyes away from the screen to look at Kurt. “That's... good?”

Kurt sighs and tips his head back against the sofa. “I told you Finn was visiting this weekend, right?” Blaine nods but doesn't speak, and Kurt continues. “Okay, so, he and Rachel were engaged for a while towards the end of our senior year, but Finn decided not to move out here and things kind of... faded away between them. It wasn't that they didn't try, which my room-mate last year would be able to confirm to you due to all of the middle of the night phone calls I received from one or the other of them, frustrated or upset with the entire situation. But by Thanksgiving break last year, they agreed it was best for everybody if they broke up.”

“That sounds reasonable.”

Kurt nods enthusiastically. “Completely reasonable! But now Finn's here, and they spent the afternoon making disgusting doe-eyes at each other when Rachel and I took him to Central Park, and now they want to 'talk things through'. Which I'm pretty sure is just really bad code for 'have obnoxiously loud sex all night' but either way I just want to not be there.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.” Kurt sighs and loads up his spoon with more ice cream. “I love them both, and I would love nothing more than for them to make things work, but Rachel is going to Italy in January for six whole months. If they couldn't make long distance work when it was just between Lima and New York, how are they going to make it work when there's the whole Atlantic Ocean in between them?”

Blaine leans over to get some more ice cream too, and considers his answer. “I guess that's for them to figure out, one way or the other.” He smiles at Kurt and sticks the spoon in his mouth, swallowing the ice cream and then sucking on the spoon for a minute while he thinks. “For the record, not knowing them like you do, I think you're right. But yeah, it's probably something you're going to have to let them figure out for themselves.”

Kurt whines a little. “That's what I thought you'd say.”

Blaine laughs and pats Kurt on the arm before taking the empty tub and spoons back into the kitchen. “You're always welcome here if you need to escape, or rant.” He pulls the fridge open and calls back to Kurt. “You want another Diet Coke?” 

He's already got two cans in his hand before Kurt yells back “Yes, please!” and Blaine grins to himself at his excellent anticipation skills. 

“So,” he starts as he sits back down, handing over one of the cans. “Who's Sam?”

He's not actually sure where that came from; he's pretty sure he'd told himself he wasn't going to ask Kurt about that, but on the other hand, Kurt's pretty much his best friend now so he figures it makes sense for him to want to know this stuff.

“Mmm?” Kurt drags his eyes away from the TV and looks over at Blaine.

Blaine's aiming for nonchalant as he flicks open his own can and starts to pour it into a glass. “You, - uh. You mentioned someone named Sam. Earlier. I just wondered... ex?” Blaine can feel his attempt at casual slipping away from him and takes a drink of his cola, hoping it might cover up his awkwardness.

Luckily, Kurt just laughs at him. “Oh my goodness, no.” He takes a second to pour his own drink, and then cocks his head to one side, thinking. “I mean, there was a while when I thought maybe... but no. Sam is – sadly – most definitely straight.”

Blaine waits for Kurt to continue, because that information doesn't really answer the question of who Sam is, but already Kurt's attention has been attracted by Nathan Fillion and Blaine sighs. “So...” he prompts.

“Oh, right.” Kurt turns slightly towards Blaine, tucking one leg up underneath himself. “He's a friend from New Directions. His family went through kind of a hard time when his Dad lost his job during our junior year. They ended up moving away, but Finn and Rachel convinced his parents to let him come back to Lima. He ended up living with us for most of the year.” 

“That sounds like an unusual set of circumstances.”

“Mmm,” Kurt nods. “When they tracked him down he was working as a stripper. To this day I'm sad I didn't go with them to find him.” He smiles when Blaine laughs, and then his smile becomes tighter as he looks down into his drink. “There was this whole debaclé at our junior prom where I was voted Prom Queen for a joke-” He looks up as Blaine gasps and he shrugs it off but Blaine can tell it's still a sore point. “Anyway, the guy who they picked for Prom King was also head of the jocks and refused to dance with me, so despite being as straight as they come, Sam stepped in to spare my blushes.”

“Man,” Blaine tips his head back against the sofa, looking up at the ceiling. “That's awesome that he went there for you.” He pauses, figuring if Kurt can share things then so can he. “What is it with bullies and dances?” 

Blaine goes silent after that and carries on just looking upwards until Kurt finally speaks, his voice soft. “What happened to you?” 

Blaine takes a breath and turns his head to face Kurt, his cheek still resting against the back of the couch. Kurt's got this look in his eyes that makes Blaine warm inside, like he can tell Kurt anything. He doesn't remember the last time he had a friend like that. “There was a Sadie Hawkins dance at my school, my freshman year.” He doesn't usually tell this story full stop, but on the occasions that he has a reason to, he tries to gloss over some parts or leave things out if he can. For some reason, he doesn't want to do that with Kurt. Maybe because Kurt's the first person he's met in a while who he thinks might really understand. “I took a friend of mine – the only other out kid in my class. The dance itself was fine, until these three guys jumped us in the parking lot afterwards.”

“Oh, Blaine,” Kurt barely speaks the words at all, they just come out with his breath. He sets his glass down on the table and rests his hand on Blaine's shoulder. 

“They, uh.” Blaine takes a deep breath and tries again. “I broke a couple of ribs, and I never went back to that school. My parents had arranged my transfer to Dalton before I was even released from hospital, and I never saw my date again either.” 

Blaine shakes his head, trying to remove himself from the memories, and looks back over at the television. He's always been a people pleaser who wants everybody to like him, but the one thing he's not good at is accepting sympathy. He always tries to smile it away like it's nothing, and tonight is no exception. Kurt rubs his shoulder a little bit and then pulls away as if he gets it, picking up his glass and taking another drink. They watch the DVD in silence for a few minutes before Kurt clears his throat.

“Ask me something else.”

Blaine frowns and looks at Kurt. “What?”

Kurt shrugs and smiles. “Ask me something you want to know. About me. You shared a big thing and I feel like I owe you a better story.”

Blaine laughs quietly and nods. “Okay.” He has so many questions he's held back from asking, in case Kurt thought he was crossing lines or pushing too hard for the weird kid he met in the coffee shop. He nods again and smiles wider. “Yeah, okay. Tell me about... exes. Somebody as attractive as you must have at least a couple.” He blushes a little as he realises how that had slipped out, but Kurt looks pleased rather than embarrassed so he doesn't try to take it back. 

After a minute, Kurt licks his lips. “Just the one, actually.” He runs his finger around the rim of his glass as he looks upwards, remembering. “I didn't even really consider dating in high school. I had crushes – completely inappropriate ones which are not part of this story-” Kurt stares pointedly with a smile and Blaine stores that information for later. “-but I didn't date. Then last year, moving here...everything changed. I let Rachel set me up on a couple of blind dates but they didn't really end well. And then around Thanksgiving a guy in my Flat Pattern Design class asked me out and I said yes. We went on a couple more dates and it just kind of continued from there.” He blushes. “As these things tend to do, I guess.”

Blaine laughs and twists in his seat so he's facing Kurt, leaning his elbow on the couch and his face on his hand. “So what happened to Flat Pattern Guy?”

Kurt rolls his eyes and laughs a little too. “His name was Jamie. We dated for a few months but the longer we were together the more it became apparent that aside from school, we didn't really have all that much in common. The downside of dating coming before friendship, I guess.”

Blaine's not sure if that's a pointed comment or if Kurt's just musing, but either way it sticks out because he feels the same way. Whether it's with Kurt or with somebody else, he definitely wants to be in a relationship based on a solid friendship first. 

“I still see him around,” Kurt smiles, and Blaine realises Kurt has carried on talking. “We didn't end on bad terms, we just agreed it wasn't really working. Since the problem was our lack of shared interests we don't have any reason to hang out as friends or anything, but if I see him at school we'll stop and catch up.” He sets his empty glass on the table and smiles back across at Blaine. “My turn.”

“Uh oh.”

Kurt cackles a little and settles himself into the corner of the couch, pulling his legs up underneath him and wriggling his bare toes down behind the cushions. “Tell me about Sebastian.”

Blaine just blinks at Kurt and then frowns, unable to stop his voice from cracking slightly when he answers. “Why?”

Kurt holds Blaine's gaze and shrugs slightly. “You don't have to, I can ask you something else. I just feel like there must be a story there, and since I feel like I can tell you anything I want you to feel the same with me. But I didn't mean to push.”

Blaine suddenly feels cosy and warm and smiles shyly at Kurt, his cheek still propped up by his hand against the back of the sofa. In one sentence Kurt has made him feel pleasantly buzzed, like he's been drinking something much stronger than Diet Coke. 

“He transferred to Dalton at the start of my junior year. He joined the Warblers and after his first meeting he came up to me and asked if I would help him figure out something to sing for his audition for a solo at Sectionals. He seemed nice enough so I agreed, and before long we were spending every spare minute together.” He sighs. “I didn't realise at first that he was hitting on me. One weekend we were at my house going through sheet music and he kissed me.” He feels tears springing to his eyes and he tries to blink them back. He knows they're tears of anger more than anything but he doesn't want Sebastian to be able to still get to him like this _at all_ so he pushes on with the story. “I was flattered and he was very careful which side of him I got to see so I completely fell for it. I was totally infatuated and couldn't see the bad, which of course was exactly what he wanted. The rest of the Warblers tried to tell me but I wouldn't listen, I argued his case to let him have the solos at Sectionals _and_ at Regionals, and it wasn't until they came to me separately with proof about the slushie and the blackmail that suddenly everything made sense. I found out he'd been cheating on me with random guys he picked up at a club and I was furious, and then when I confronted him about it he actually _laughed_.” Blaine's voice cracks a little on that last word and he clears his throat. “So I went to the headmaster with everything – the Warbler stuff, not the personal parts – and he was expelled.”

Kurt listens to the whole story and doesn't try to touch or comfort Blaine, which Blaine is thankful for because tonight has been nice and he really doesn't want to ruin it by starting to cry for being shown the slightest bit of sympathy. Instead Kurt just waits until Blaine is done, uncurls one leg and pokes at Blaine's shin with his toe. “Your turn to ask.”

“Oh. Um.” Blaine yawns and then bends backwards to stretch while he thinks. He straightens up and opens his mouth to ask a question, but before he can speak Kurt presses his lips together and sits up straight.

“It's getting late, I should probably go.”

Blaine's confused by the sudden change in Kurt's demeanour but he looks at his watch and it _is_ almost one. “You don't have to go.” He blushes and shakes his head slightly, realising how that sounded, and continues before Kurt can misconstrue his words as a come-on. “I mean, Cooper's not coming home tonight. I'll sleep in his bed, and you can take mine.”

Kurt relaxes back into the sofa and smiles. “Are you sure?”

Blaine nods. “Consider it returning the favour for you letting me sleep on your couch. And it's my turn to ask, remember?” He grins cheekily and then mimics Kurt's move from earlier by poking Kurt's ankle with his big toe. “Plus, who knows what Rachel and Finn are up to back at your place. It wouldn't be wise for you to go back when they've probably assumed you're not going to.”

Kurt shudders and makes a disgusted noise. “Well then, yeah. That would be great. Thank you.”

“More snacks?” 

Kurt nods so Blaine stands to head back into the kitchen, and this time Kurt picks up their empty glasses and follows him. Blaine's standing on his toes trying to pull down a bag of potato chips from the top shelf of a cupboard and Kurt smiles and clears his throat just as Blaine's about to pull out a chair to stand on.

Blaine jumps and smiles sheepishly when he realises Kurt is watching. “Cooper knows these are my favourite so he lets me buy the groceries and then hides everything I like on the shelves I can't reach just to piss me off.”

“That's adorable,” Kurt laughs and shoos Blaine out of the way as he reaches up to the shelf, pulling down a bag of sweet chili flavour Doritos. “These?”

“It's not, it's annoying. And yes. Those.” Blaine ducks down to a different cupboard and pulls out a bowl, which Kurt takes and starts emptying the chips into it. “More Diet Coke?”

Kurt nods as he scrunches up the bag and spins around, looking for the trash can. “Please.”

Blaine pulls two more cans out and passes one to Kurt in exchange for the empty bag. “I don't know how you sleep with all this caffeine in you.”

“Years of conditioning,” Kurt grins. “You might want to switch to something else though, if you're not used to it.”

“I think I can handle myself,” Blaine teases in return, tossing his empty can into the trash and picking up his glass and the bowl of chips. “Lead the way.”

They settle themselves back on the couch after Blaine puts in the next DVD. He's pretty sure Kurt hasn't been paying attention to any of it and makes a note to lend it to him sometime but he presses play all the same, for background noise if nothing else. “All right,” he starts as he sits back down, reaching for the bowl of chips and setting it between them on the sofa. “I want to hear about the inappropriate school crushes that you mentioned earlier.”

Kurt blushes immediately and groans. “I knew I shouldn't have mentioned those.”

Blaine grins. “Fair's fair. Tell me.”

“Fine.” Kurt reaches for a handful of chips and crunches his way through a couple before he starts speaking. “I already told you about Sam, he was one of the two. When he first joined glee club I was convinced he had to be gay and I was also convinced he dyed his hair. I'm still not sure I wasn't right about that second one, but he lived with us for six months and I never found any evidence of dye in the bathroom so I'll have to concede.”

“And the other?” Blaine can tell Kurt's avoiding the subject and he's looking forward to this story. 

“The other,” Kurt sighs dramatically. “was Finn.”

Blaine's mouth drops open for a few seconds mid-chew until he catches himself doing so and closes it, swallowing quickly. “Finn. Your _brother_ Finn?”

“ _Step_ -brother,” Kurt emphasises. “And his Mom only started dating my Dad because I set them up in order for me to be able to spend more time with Finn, so really I did everybody a favour.” He eats the last chip in his hand and looks up at Blaine while licking the chili dust from his fingers. “I had a huge crush on him and I wasn't the nicest person with the way I went about it. I made Finn a little scared of being alone with me and I almost jeopardized our parents' relationship along the way, but eventually I stopped being an ass about it and now looking back I can't believe I acted like that.”

“Plus as tonight has shown, these days you're clearly repulsed by the idea of Finn being naked, so...” Blaine grins, ducking as Kurt throws a chip at him. 

“How can you know for sure it's not just because I'm jealous of Rachel?” He scrunches his nose up before he's even finished the sentence. “No, no. I can't even joke about that. Quick, say something that doesn't make me think of Finn with no clothes on.” 

Blaine snorts and points at the TV. “How about Nathan Fillion with no clothes on?”

Kurt sighs happily as he redirects his attention to the television set. “Oh yes. Much better now.” He wriggles in his seat trying to get comfortable and stretches one leg out straight, resting his toes against Blaine's thigh. Blaine sucks in a breath at the sudden warmth against his leg but keeps his eyes trained on the screen. Tonight is turning out to be the biggest test so far for Blaine when it comes to balancing his crush with his desire to have Kurt as his best friend. Kurt probably doesn't mean anything by it, Blaine's sure. He's just trying to get comfortable. 

When the silence is finally broken, it's by Kurt. “So after Sebastian, was there anyone... else?” His foot is still resting against Blaine's leg and when Blaine lets himself look over, Kurt looks so comfortable there.

“No.” Blaine's so quiet he's not sure if Kurt even heard him. “No, there wasn't,” he repeats. “I decided to concentrate on school for the rest of that year, and by senior year I was too busy loading my schedule with extra-curricular activities – at my Dad and Cooper's insistence – so I didn't really have time to meet anybody new. I figured I'd meet plenty of interesting people once I got to New York, so I concentrated on making sure I got accepted.”

Kurt smiles at him. “Good plan. How'd that work out?”

Blaine beams back at Kurt. “Pretty good, I think.” He reaches into the bowl for another chip and tries to play it cool. “I've made some friends, and a couple of really _good_ friends. Plus I've survived living with Cooper for two months and I think I deserve a medal for that.”

The last comment makes Kurt cackle and he grins at Blaine. “Should you ever need an alibi if you crack and murder him, I'm here.”

“I'm going to hold you to that,” he laughs. Kurt suddenly brings his hand up to stifle a yawn, and Blaine watches as he stretches his arms above his head. He thinks a little skin is on show as Kurt's shirt rides up, but it's entirely possible that's just happening in his imagination as he's refusing to let himself look there. Instead he sets the almost empty bowl of chips on the coffee table and reaches for the DVD remote. 

“Sorry,” Kurt smiles apologetically. “It's been a long day.”

Blaine shuts off the television and stands up, dropping the remote onto the couch and offering his hand to Kurt. Kurt accepts and Blaine pulls him to his feet, walking towards his bedroom and flicking on the light. He silently thanks any deity who might be listening for reminding him to make his bed that morning and holds the door for Kurt. “There's a bathroom in here, so I'll just grab a couple of things and leave you to it.”

Kurt nods, following Blaine into the room. “Thanks.”

“Oh – do you need something to wear? For sleeping?” Blaine hasn't really thought about that until now, and he's not sure which answer is least likely to drive him crazy.

He gets his answer when Kurt shakes his head a little shyly and looks down at his clothes. “I'll... make do.” 

Blaine doesn't know if that means Kurt will sleep naked or in his underwear or fully clothed, but he knows he needs to get out of the room before he asks it out loud. He just nods and heads for his closet, pulling out a clean pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and turning to leave. “So, um. Goodnight.”

Kurt's already removing his accessories and setting them carefully on Blaine's nightstand by the time Blaine reaches the door. He looks up and smiles. “Yeah. Goodnight.”

Blaine pulls the door closed and heads into Cooper's room, closing the door there too and leaning back against it for a minute before quickly changing into the clothes he brought in with him. He slides between the sheets of Cooper's bed and closes his eyes, trying to steady his breathing. As hard as he tries he can't stop himself from thinking about Kurt in his bed, possibly completely naked, in the room next door and his hand slips under the sheets to touch himself. It's only when a quiet moan escapes his lips that he pulls his hand away like it's on fire, remembering only too clearly how thin the walls are thanks to Cooper's sexcapades a few weeks back. There's no way he can let Kurt hear him doing _that_ and still be able to look him in the eye in the morning.

He turns on his side and tucks his hand under the pillow, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing himself to think about anything but Kurt. He ends up making a mental list of all the groceries he needs to buy tomorrow and his train of thought only detours into Kurt-ville twice (while trying to remember what they ate that he needs to replace, and making a mental note to buy the Diet Coke in bulk in case Kurt comes over again). He finally falls asleep just after the obnoxious bright green numbers on Cooper's stupid radio alarm clock tick past four in the morning.

–

Blaine wakes the next morning to the smell of food being cooked. It takes him a minute to remember why he's in Cooper's bed, and he's immediately relieved because it means it's not Cooper doing the cooking. 

He sits up on the side of the bed and stretches, taking a quick glance in the mirror and realising there's no point even trying to do anything with his hair. When he emerges, Kurt is clanking around in the kitchen, opening and closing doors while he looks for things. Blaine takes a minute to watch Kurt, excited by the idea of Kurt making himself feel at home in the mornings, and then clears his throat and makes his presence known.

“Hi,” he smiles, leaning against the doorframe.

Kurt looks up and grins back at him. “I'm making breakfast.”

“So I see.”

“I hope that's okay. I was hungry, and you had eggs, and I had this craving for an omelette.” He hands Blaine a plate. “Here's yours.”

“You can cook for me any time you like,” Blaine laughs as he opens a drawer to find forks. “Don't tell Rachel, but I couldn't live without eggs.”

“It's the hardest part about living with a vegan,” Kurt nods, taking the fork Blaine is offering and following him out to the breakfast bar. “She's fine with me eating non-vegan stuff, but I don't tend to keep eggs in the house. She says they call to her from the fridge.”

Blaine snorts and they sit in silence while they eat. The omelette is perfect; Blaine wouldn't have expected anything less. 

“Speaking of Rachel,” Kurt starts, picking up his phone from the table while he talks. “She sent me a message earlier. She's inviting us both out for a 'double blind triple date' this week.”

Blaine blinks. “A what?”

“Yeah. I got her to be more specific.” He runs his fingers across the screen of his phone, pulling up the conversation he'd had with Rachel earlier. “She basically wants to set us up with some guys she knows.”

“Both of us?” Blaine is a little shocked. He's met Rachel two or three times since the karaoke night, but he's surprised she feels like she knows him well enough to set him up on a date. 

“Yeah. You and me, a date for each of us, plus Rachel and Finn. Which is where the triple part comes into it.”

“You don't have to,” Kurt starts. “Oh, except for that you have to. You can't let me do this alone. And you _did_ say how much you'd like to meet Finn...”

Blaine laughs and raises his hands in defeat. “Okay, sure. Tell her I'll be there.”

–

It turns out he was right to be dubious about the whole idea. The night starts badly when Blaine's date arrives while Kurt is reaching across the table to straighten Blaine's bow tie, and gets worse when Blaine mistakes Kurt's date for the waiter.

It probably doesn't help that Blaine knocks an entire glass of water over and the liquid lands squarely in his date's lap. 

Rachel's taste in guys doesn't turn out to be as bad as he'd feared, though. The date she picked for him, Marc, is somebody she's known since her Music Theory class in her Freshman year, and he and Blaine seem to have plenty in common. He's only a little taller than Blaine and has sandy brown hair – he's exactly the kind of guy Blaine would usually find irresistible, if it wasn't that he only had eyes for Kurt at the moment. 

Kurt doesn't seem to be faring much better with his date, and Blaine knows he shouldn't be glad about that but he is. Matt seems to be a sweet guy, and Kurt is too polite to blow him off right away, so it's not until he pulls out a pen and starts doodling on a napkin that Blaine realises Kurt really isn't interested in this guy. 

When Kurt slides the napkin across the table Blaine realises it's a sketch of one of the shirts Kurt's been working on for him, with a couple of minor adjustments scribbled on it. When Matt heads for the bathroom, Blaine takes the opportunity to slide one seat over so he's directly across from Kurt. They're so deep in discussion that Blaine doesn't even notice when Matt comes back, let alone when he and Marc start chatting.

Kurt is fiddling with the cuff on Blaine's shirt and explaining something complicated about buttons when Finn moves up a seat to sit beside Blaine. “Rachel and I are gonna head home.”

Blaine looks up. “Already?” 

Finn scrunches up his face and looks pointedly at the seat beside Kurt, which is now empty. “Your dates left, dude. Together.” 

Kurt is suddenly biting his lip sheepishly, and when Blaine looks at his watch he realises he's been talking to Kurt for at least an hour. He has no idea when Matt and Marc left, and he feels awful that he hadn't even noticed they were gone. Finn obviously notices this and pats Blaine awkwardly on the shoulder. 

“Don't worry about it. I think they were into each other anyway. This probably worked out for the best.” He smiles sympathetically and stands to help Rachel with her coat. Kurt decides to leave with them, eager to turn his napkin full of notes into actual designs, which leaves Blaine to head home alone with his thoughts. 

-

Cooper's play opens on a Thursday night a couple of weeks later and as expected, it's a train wreck. Cooper had offered to get them seats in the front row but Blaine managed to stop him, making excuses about preferring to buy his own and having a better view of the whole stage if he sits further back. 

Kurt and Blaine sit by the aisle two rows from the back and from the opening scenes they realise they're not going to be able to look at each other during the show for fear of giggling. Blaine had been hoping that because they've both read the script and are aware of what's coming, it might be easier to control themselves.

If only.

Some inserts have been pre-recorded to show on a screen as part of a documentary-style interlude between scenes. Blaine's not sure if that was originally part of the plan, or if the director didn't trust the cast to be able to remember all of their lines if they had to act the whole thing on the night. Unfortunately whoever they've got controlling the projection clearly isn't all that good with technology and Blaine has to stifle a giggle when the second clip of the night starts and it's the one they've already seen. Cooper is still on stage, waiting for the clip to end and the lights to come back up and Blaine chances a look, realising that Cooper is in his _zone_ and hasn't even noticed it's the wrong piece of video.

Kurt pokes Blaine in the leg and leans toward him, whispering “Is that being projected from somebody's _laptop_?”, but before Blaine can reply the question is answered for him as an arrow cursor appears on the screen, followed by a right click menu. Whoever's in charge clicks next, then accidentally clicks next again, and there's an agonising pause while they wait for the clip to start before clicking previous one last time. With the right piece of video finally playing, Blaine buries his head in his hands and chews on his lip, trying to hold back the urge to laugh.

Blaine's trying hard not to critique the staging too much and he's looking out for things he might be able to use later when Cooper inevitably wants to know all the things that they loved about it. Blaine's pretty sure that telling his brother how hilarious all of the technological failure was isn't going to cut it. It's hard, though, when all they have is a sliding wall to signify changes of scene, but none of the furniture moves so it feels like everything is taking place in the same room. When Cooper starts pointing at a non-existent painting on the wall, he leans to Kurt and mutters “Oh good, he gets to _point_ ,” and Kurt dissolves into silent giggles beside him. 

They're both aware that it's a tiny production and the company probably can't afford a lot of technology or set dressing or complicated staging, but Blaine knows there are things they could do to make it better than this. He's minutes away from going to find Cooper in the intermission and telling him he'll take over the laptop for the rest of the show if somebody just gives him a list of cues, but he's sure that if he does it once they'll rope him into doing it for the rest of the run and there's no way he can stand to watch this again every night for another month. 

A few minutes before they break for the intermission there's another clip, and again it's the wrong thing. This is the point when Blaine realises they don't actually have anybody in charge of the video and it's just being done by whoever isn't on stage at the time, because when the same clip starts three times in a row and Blaine hears a hissed “ _Fuck!_ ” from backstage, it comes in a voice that is unmistakably Cooper's. Finally the playlist skips back far enough that the right piece of video is playing and Blaine lets out a sigh of relief. He's chewing the inside of his cheek when Kurt mutters “Was that Cooper?” and Blaine nods, one hundred percent positive that if he looks at Kurt he'll start to laugh in the inappropriate – loud – way that he knows he won't be able to stop. 

Finally the act ends and the cast slip off stage – there's no curtain, and in fact Blaine realises that the front two rows of seats have been removed in order to fit extra stage into the room. Blaine finally chances a glance at Kurt, who is staring at his fingers with his lips pressed together. The theatre is small but three quarters full, and only a couple of people have slipped out to the bathroom so it's noisy with chatter. He nudges Kurt with his elbow until Kurt looks up, and the second they lock eyes Blaine is grinning and Kurt's whole face lights up with joy. 

“Right click, next, fuck!” Kurt giggles, leaning his head against Blaine's shoulder as he laughs. 

“Shhh,” Blaine tries to chastise, but it's undermined by the fact that he's laughing too. “At least it can't get worse right?”

Kurt gasps and covers his mouth with his hand. “Oh Blaine, you should know better than to say that during a performance!”

“But,” Blaine mutters, gesturing at the stage. “Cooper said _fuck_ , Kurt. During the show. Loudly.”

“I still think you've just doomed the second act to be worse than the first.”

Blaine raises an eyebrow with a smirk on his face and Kurt snorts, dissolving into giggles again just in time for the lights to dim for the start of the second act. Blaine looks up at the ceiling and bites his lip, forcing the smile from his face before the actors come back out. 

He tries his hardest to treat it as the serious play it's meant to be, but it's difficult. It's completely offensive and incredibly complicated, and Blaine loses himself in the way they keep talking about their hover _ball_ and hover _car_ and various other anvil sized reminders that they're meant to be in a world almost two hundred years in a the future. He's so distracted by nitpicking the script that he almost misses the next time one of the videos starts to play and Kurt mimes a tiny round of applause because it's the right one.

Twenty seconds into the clip, though, a little pop-up message appears in the corner of the screen. 

_FIND LOVE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!_

Blaine doesn't quite catch the rest of the message before the cursor completely un-subtly slides across the screen and clicks the message away. He can already feel Kurt's shoulders shaking beside him and he's determined not to laugh, but they're making it hard for him. In fact, he's starting to wonder if this is some kind of hidden camera show and the whole thing is out to get him, but he's pretty sure Cooper's not good enough at acting to keep that a secret. 

By the time the play ends and they take their curtain call, Blaine can tell that Cooper thinks the whole thing has been a complete success and that the audience adores him. As soon as the cast leaves the stage Kurt is on his feet, tugging on Blaine's hand and pulling him down the aisle towards the door, apologising to anybody he bumps into as they run from the building. 

They both start laughing as soon as they're outside the door and then it's Blaine doing the pulling, not wanting to stand and laugh outside the theatre door in case Cooper comes out. They don't stop until they're leaning against the window of the Starbucks two blocks up and every time one of them manages to get their laughter under control, one glance at the other sets them off again. 

“That was actually _worse_ ,” Kurt chokes out between giggles. “Than when we acted it out in your apartment. I didn't think that was possible.”

“Find love this holiday season!” Blaine snorts. “At least I know that wasn't Cooper's computer. Finding dates is not something he'd ever resort to the internet for.”

It takes almost fifteen minutes before they can look at each other without more laughter bubbling up, and Blaine's pretty sure the people inside the store think they're crazy. He relaxes against the glass and presses his fingers into his eyes as he tries to get his breathing back under control. He hears a contented sigh from Kurt beside him and twists sideways to smile up at him. 

“Thanks for coming with me. I don't think I could have handled that otherwise.”

Kurt smiles a little shyly and looks down at his fingers, stretching them against each other. “It was my pleasure.” 

Blaine looks down at Kurt's fingers too, and then back up to his face. All of a sudden Kurt seems nervous and it's like something has shifted in the air between them. When Kurt looks at Blaine again he's still smiling but it's a different smile and now it's making Blaine feel nervous too. Neither of them speak for a minute until Kurt's gaze flicks down from Blaine's eyes to his lips and back up again, his lips parting slightly and drawing Blaine's attention. 

Blaine's stomach does a little flip and he suddenly can't remember how to do anything at all, so he pulls his eyes away from Kurt's mouth and clears his throat. “I should get back,” he mutters, and he can't believe it's his mouth these words are coming from. “Cooper will be waiting to hear my review, so he can be showered with compliments.”

“Oh.” Kurt straightens up, and Blaine's pretty sure that's a look of hurt on Kurt's face but it's like he's working on autopilot and his mouth is speaking on its own. “Okay.”

“I've got an early start tomorrow,” he continues, suddenly desperate to voice every single excuse that's running through his head, even the ones he knows Kurt knows are lies.

“You don't start until ten thirty on Fridays,” Kurt points out, his voice a mixture of confused and disinterested that Blaine's never heard aimed at him before. 

“I, -uh.” He winces and wishes he could just rewind the clock five minutes and kiss Kurt like he wanted to. Instead he just carries on lying. “I have to meet a friend first, to go through something for acting class.”

Kurt just nods and Blaine turns slightly to head back towards the theatre. “Tell Cooper I enjoyed the play,” Kurt blinks a couple of times and forces a smile. “I'll see you Saturday?” 

Blaine smiles, relief flooding through him that Kurt still wants to meet for coffee. The whole point of not wanting to date Kurt was that he'd rather have him as a friend than not at all, but maybe it's time to stop pretending he doesn't feel anything stronger. He just needs a couple of days to figure it out.

“Yeah,” he pulls his jacket around him, getting cold now that they're just standing still on the street. “Same as always.”

He turns back to wave when he's halfway down the block but Kurt's already disappeared, and Blaine can see him inside Starbucks waiting to order. He has an idea about what he can do on Saturday that might fix whatever he's just messed up, but he needs to be sure that Cooper's not going to be home first, and then spend the next forty eight hours working on his nerves. And maybe a song. He could definitely perform an apology song for Kurt, maybe that would work.

He sighs as he reaches the theatre, telling himself to stop being stupid. Kurt doesn't need a song. Kurt – apparently – already likes him, so all he needs is the truth. He pushes open the door to backstage, plastering on a smile as Cooper catches sight of him and bounds out, full of post-show adrenaline and confidence.

–

Blaine wakes up on Saturday morning with a plan. While he lies in bed, he reaches for his phone and sends a text to Kurt. _I'm so, so sorry, but I can't make this afternoon. Can you come to my place tonight instead? 7?_ He closes his eyes with his phone on the pillow beside him, and has almost drifted off again when Kurt replies with an _Okay._

Blaine can hear Cooper showering so he gets up and shuffles out into the kitchen, pulling out bread and switching on the toaster so he can make Cooper some bribery breakfast. By the time Cooper comes into the kitchen freshly showered and dressed, the toast is done and Blaine's just spreading jelly on it. He smiles and hands Cooper the plate before turning to make some more for himself.

“Thanks, squirt,” he grins, sitting down and taking a bite out of the first slice before frowning. “Wait. Does this mean that you want something?” 

“No,” Blaine answers quickly and then realises he needs to clarify because actually that's exactly what it means. “Not necessarily?” 

“So that means yes, then.”

Blaine sighs and runs his hand through his hair. “I was just wondering if you were going to be out tonight,” he starts. “After the play.” Cooper's staring at him to continue, clearly waiting for a reason, so Blaine goes on. “It's just I know you haven't come home a few nights recently and I was kind of hoping tonight was going to be another one of those nights.”

Cooper breaks out into a wide grin and slaps Blaine on the back. “Well now that you mention it, I have been seeing somebody lately, and things have been progressing _well_ , if you know what I mean.”

“Ugh,” Blaine looks up at the ceiling, refusing to meet Cooper's eyes for fear of being forced to fist bump his brother. “Everybody _alive_ knows what you mean, Coop. Are you going to be out tonight, or what?”

“Yeah, I can stay out. But you owe me.” Cooper shoves the last of his toast into his mouth with a grin, standing up. “And if Kurt's going to be using you as a pincushion again, try to remember to shut the blinds this time. Nobody needs to see you with your shirt off, especially not the neighbours.”

Cooper disappears into his bedroom and Blaine huffs as he sits down in the seat his brother's just vacated and starts on his own toast. “I'll try to remember,” he yells out, wincing and wishing he'd managed to come up with something snappier or more sarcastic. 

Blaine's cleaning the kitchen when Cooper reappears, a bag slung over his shoulder and a script in his hand. “I'm leaving now, I'll be back sometime tomorrow.”

“Already?” Blaine frowns, looking at his watch. “Don't you usually take a morning nap to prepare yourself on showdays?” His personal opinion is that Cooper's idea of preparing himself is stupid, but it's the way he's always been.

“That's what I'd _rather_ be doing, yeah. But the director has some notes on the play; apparently some of the audiences have found certain parts confusing. Confusing, Blaine! Did you find it confusing?” Blaine opens his mouth to mumble something about understanding it fine, but Cooper doesn't give him time to utter a single syllable, he just ploughs on through. “I mean if these people are getting _confused_ then maybe they're at the wrong play, you know? Maybe they should see something simpler, like Sesame Street.”

Cooper's gone before Blaine can process most of the rant, which is clearly not really meant for him anyway, and he turns his attention to the lounge and dining area. He's managed to pick up some nice fabric he could pass off as a tablecloth, and he even made a special trip to buy a whole selection of candles on his way home from class yesterday. By the time five o'clock rolls around he's tidied the entire apartment, set candles on all of the surfaces he can find that won't come to any harm if wax gets on them, and taken a shower before changing into the clothes he'd picked out. 

When Kurt knocks on the door on the dot of seven, Blaine's already lit all of the candles and he's draining the pasta, trying to convince his hands there's no need to be shaking so hard, it's only Kurt. “Just a second!” he calls out, setting the pasta down beside the sink and rubbing his hands on a towel before taking a deep breath and heading for the door. 

His breath catches in his throat when he pulls the door open and sees Kurt standing there, leaning against the door frame and refusing to look Blaine in the eye, which Blaine figures he deserves after the other night. After much deliberation, Blaine has finally settled on wearing his nicest pair of slacks and a fitted white shirt with thin blue stripes that he'd picked up at Kurt's suggestion when one of their Saturday coffee dates had turned into something of a shopping spree. And even without knowing the reason Blaine has invited him over, Kurt looks gorgeous as ever in a pair of skinny jeans and black waistcoat over a thin navy sweater. 

“Hi. Um, come in.” Blaine steps back from the door to let Kurt in. “You look great.”

Kurt actually makes eye contact when Blaine says that, looking up in surprise. “Thanks.” He steps inside and Blaine closes the door behind him and then heads back to the food while Kurt looks around the room in surprise.

“Blaine?” Blaine turns away from the food and back towards Kurt, who's leaning against the back of one of the dining chairs, staring at the candles. “Can I ask you a question?” He quickly shakes his head and starts again. “Can I ask you _two_ questions? Though the second one is kind of dependent on the answer to the first.”

Blaine nods, his hands tensing into fists at his side, and forces himself to relax. “Sure.”

Kurt's quiet for a minute before he takes one step away from the chair and closer to Blaine. He gestures wildly around him at the candles and the slightly dimmed lights. “Is this a date?”

Blaine smiles a little and then nods again. “Yeah.”

“With me, right?”

“Was that the second question?”

“No, that was a clarification on the first question.”

“Oh.” Blaine's unable to stop himself from grinning at Kurt now. “Yeah. With you. You and me,” he finishes, doing some clarification of his own. “What's the second question?”

Kurt bites his lip for a second, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth as he walks across the room towards Blaine. “Can I kiss you now?”

Blaine blushes and smiles even wider, managing to keep his eyes locked with Kurt's and not look away through nerves. “Please.”

“I thought I'd ask first this time,” Kurt teases softly, stepping right into Blaine's space and pressing him back against the counter. “In case you ran away again.” Kurt reaches towards Blaine's face with his right hand, gently tilting Blaine's face upwards and pressing their lips together before Blaine can formulate a response. His left hand has settled on Blaine's hip, anchoring him in place, and he smiles at Blaine as he pulls away. “Needed to get that out of the way before dinner. It'll cut _way_ back on the awkward first date small talk. Speaking of which,” he smiles, twisting out of Blaine's space but catching his hand on Blaine's wrist to maintain contact. “What are we having?”

“Um,” Blaine glances down at Kurt's hand and back up to Kurt with a smile. He's shocked how intimate such a small touch feels. “Spaghetti. With sauce. Sauce that has stuff in it.” He reacts quickly when he sees Kurt going to dip his finger in the saucepan, smacking his hand away with a laugh. “It's not the most exciting thing I can cook, but I wanted to make sure I wouldn't mess it up. I can do this one in my sleep.”

“It smells good,” Kurt confirms, while Blaine rests his hand on the small of Kurt's back and steers him towards the dining table. 

“Go. Sit. I'll bring it over.”

Kurt goes where he's told but doesn't sit, leaning against the back of one of the chairs instead. “Is there anything I can do?”

Blaine is busy splitting the spaghetti between the two plates, biting his lip while he concentrates. “Seriously, sit.” He starts spooning the sauce on top of the pasta and when he turns back to the table, Kurt has finally caved and taken a seat, leaning back in the chair and watching Blaine with a smile. “Voila,” he smiles, placing a plate in front of Kurt and one at the place he'd set opposite. “Drink?”

Kurt nods, and he heads back towards the kitchen and pulls a bottle of wine from the fridge. “I talked Cooper into buying us this by threatening to drink all his beer,” he starts, holding up the bottle and then setting it down on the counter, reaching back into the fridge and pulling out a can of Diet Coke. “But if you'd prefer, there's this.”

Laughing, Kurt points towards the bottle. “Wine is good. I trust you not to let me get sozzled.” 

Blaine nods solemnly as he returns to the table with the bottle and two glasses. “I do _not_ want you throwing up on my shoes.”

“Is this your idea of romantic? Talking about my chances of vomit?”

“I'm new to wooing. Is this not how it's usually done?”

Kurt lets out a soft chuckle as Blaine takes a seat and then fills their glasses. He sets one down in front of Kurt and feels a little tingle when their fingers brush. “Usually there are less shout-outs to previous embarrassments, but otherwise, you're doing perfectly.”

Blaine can't keep the smile off his face as he blushes and picks up his fork, sticking it dramatically into the spaghetti and concentrating on eating it without getting sauce all over his face and his shirt. He's suddenly regretting spaghetti until he feels a gentle kick at his ankle.

“Hey,” Kurt murmurs, and Blaine looks up in surprise. “Why are you frowning at your pasta?”

“If I get this all over my face, you have to promise you'll tell me,” he answers, and Kurt laughs.

“I promise.” Kurt spears a piece of sausage with his fork and twists spaghetti around it before sticking it in his mouth, and Blaine marvels at the technique. “Oh my God,” Kurt mumbles, suddenly remembering his manners and covering his mouth. In the ten seconds it takes him to chew and swallow Blaine is halfway out of the chair to retrieve takeout menus assuming the food is awful. It's probably too salty or too spicy or maybe Kurt's allergic to something? This is going to go down in history as the worst date _ever_ \- “Why didn't you tell me you can cook?” 

“I- oh.” Blaine slumps back into the chair while Kurt watches him with an amused smile, twirling more spaghetti onto his fork while he waits for Blaine to answer. “I get by. It's not as good as your soup.”

“My soup _is_ amazing.”

“My cooking skills mostly stem from Cooper being terrible at it,” Blaine carries on, sticking his tongue out briefly at the interruption. “He's nine years older than me and he'd be babysitting and I'd be telling him what to cook for dinner and forcing him to let me help because I knew I could do it better. When I was six.”

Kurt snorts and Blaine smiles back, trying to copy Kurt and wrap the spaghetti around his fork just as neatly as Kurt had done. He's got the fork halfway to his mouth when Kurt speaks again. “But why am I just finding out about this skill now?”

Blaine shrugs. “I just haven't had a lot of opportunity to cook since I moved here. I'm really good at making something out of whatever happens to be left on the shelves, and Cooper and I have pretty much just been buying things as and when we need them, to save money. Actual meal planning is where I tend to fall down.” He's eyeing the spaghetti as it starts to unravel, finishing his sentence as quickly as he can and shoving the fork in his mouth before it falls off altogether. He just about manages it, a stray strand poking out of the corner of his mouth before he sucks it in and Kurt claps.

“Perfect!”

Blaine just laughs and loads his fork again, and Kurt follows suit. By the time Blaine's drained his first glass of wine, Kurt is almost done eating and Blaine's managed to keep the sauce and his shirt apart so far. Before he tops up his own glass Blaine offers the bottle towards Kurt who considers it and then holds up a finger. Blaine waits while Kurt finishes the wine in his glass and then holds it out for a refill with a cheery smile.

“One more and then I'm cutting us off,” Blaine laughs, and Kurt nods in agreement.

Kurt finishes his food first, and Blaine feels a little self conscious as Kurt just sits back with his hands wrapped around his wine glass and watches him. He's feeling a little buzzed in a nice, happy way, and Kurt has a little flush on his cheeks that makes Blaine think Kurt's feeling the same. When he finally puts down his fork he leans back in his chair for a minute and then stands and pulls Kurt to his feet. Blaine nudges him gently in the direction of the TV. “Pick a movie. I'll be right there.”

When he returns from putting the wine back in the fridge and dumping their plates in the sink, Kurt is already settled on the couch with a DVD in one hand and his almost empty glass in the other. Blaine takes the box from him and eyes it curiously. “Moulin Rouge? You have a desire to remember our first date with us ending the night sobbing our eyes out?”

“It's romantic,” Kurt argues, setting his glass down on the coffee table and pulling his legs up onto the couch. Blaine's not sure when Kurt took his shoes off and smiles at how comfortable Kurt looks like that. “Besides, I don't imagine either of us will be paying much attention.”

“Oh,” Blaine murmurs, his mouth suddenly dry. “Right.” He drops to his knees and switches everything on, putting the disc in the player and then returning to the couch to settle himself next to Kurt.

Blaine's barely pressed play on the menu before Kurt is nudging him with his elbow, and when Blaine turns to look he sees Kurt's eyes are focussed on his lips. He feels the same nervous desire to turn away and pretend this isn't happening that he felt in the pit of his stomach after Cooper's play, except this time Kurt's hand is resting on his bicep and he knows for sure they both want this. He takes a deep breath as Kurt sits up straighter and moves his face slowly towards Blaine. Their noses are almost touching when Kurt squeezes Blaine's arm and it spurs Blaine on to close the gap and press their lips together. 

Blaine presses Kurt back into the sofa and when they break apart for breath he starts placing kisses down the side of Kurt's neck. Blaine's always loved Kurt's neck, if he's honest with himself, and the way Kurt just willingly angles it up so that Blaine can reach it better makes Blaine's fingers tingle. 

Kurt's back arches and he moans a little as Blaine plants a kiss just underneath Kurt's ear. “Your neck,” he whispers before starting to work his way back down. “Is my favourite part.”

When Kurt speaks his voice is breathy and low, and it's the hottest thing Blaine's ever heard. “You haven't seen all of me yet,” he mutters, and Blaine's brain completely freezes. He stops kissing while he processes the words, leaving his lips against Kurt's neck, and Kurt suddenly scrambles to sit up. “Oh my _God_ ,” he rambles. “That was the sluttiest thing I have ever said. We can- we should forget I said it.”

Blaine finally manages to get a signal from his brain to his mouth and he clears his throat. “I hope not.” He waits for Kurt to relax and smile before he goes right back to kissing Kurt's amazing perfect collarbone. 

Kurt is laughing now, running a finger up and down against the hair at the back of Blaine's neck as he starts to tease. “Didn't Cooper specifically ask you not to do stuff like this on the couch?” 

“Mmm,” Blaine sighs, sitting up a little. “He's out. What he doesn't know won't hurt him.”

Kurt puts his hand flat on Blaine's chest and then hooks a couple of fingers between the buttons of Blaine's shirt. “Are you _sure_ he's out? He hasn't just told you he's going out and then stayed in his room listening to you have sex like a giant creeper?” 

Blaine feels himself blushing and he drops his face into Kurt's shoulder, shaking with laughter. “What happened to less references to embarrassing incidents on the first date?” he chides, not really upset if it means he gets to snuggle up into Kurt even more. 

Kurt laughs too and tilts Blaine's face up to look at him properly. “Oh yeah. Sorry.”

“We should, um,” Blaine croaks as he stares up at Kurt. “Bedroom.” 

Kurt's eyebrows knit together in something almost resembling a frown, but gentler somehow. “We can go slow, you know. Whatever you're ready for.” He blushes a little and runs his hand through Blaine's curls, shifting them both so that Blaine is less on top of him. “And wow, I really sound like a pretentious floozy, don't I?”

Blaine shakes his head as he wriggles back into a comfortable place where he can still be pressed up against Kurt's side. “I've never known anybody less of a floozy than you.” He slides his hand up Kurt's thigh, lacing their fingers together comfortably and turns a little to the side so that he's half facing Kurt. All he wants to do is stare at Kurt forever, pretty much. “And I'm not fragile, you know. I know what I'm ready for.”

Kurt smiles and curls his fingers around Blaine's with a gentle squeeze. “You ran away because you thought I was going to kiss you, remember,” he argues with a chuckle. “I don't want you to run again.”

“I will never run from you again,” Blaine promises, and he means it. “Unless like I'm late and you're going somewhere else and I literally _have_ to run, obviously.”

“Obviously.”

They're silent for a minute and Blaine leans his head against Kurt's shoulder. The movie is playing away in front of them but neither boy is really watching - they've both seen it enough times that it doesn't matter anyway. “I think we should go to the bedroom,” Blaine announces, and he says it so decisively that Kurt can't help but start to giggle. “Oh _that_ does wonders for my ego,” he laughs, standing up and pulling Kurt with him. “I just need to put out the candles. Cooper will kill me if he comes home and I've burnt down the apartment.”

“Oh, but then maybe there would be firefighters!” Kurt grins and loops his arms around Blaine's neck and Blaine pulls him closer with a smile. 

“Trying really hard at the whole not looking like a floozy thing, huh?” He's laughing and so's Kurt, who prods him in the back of the shoulder in mock outrage. Blaine tilts his head forward until their foreheads are resting against each other. “Just to be clear,” he murmurs. “I want you, Kurt. I've never been very good at reading signals and I tend to put up barriers when I'm scared like that, but I _want_ you. We've wasted enough time already going slow and I want to do everything with you. It doesn't all have to be tonight, but I don't want to wait any longer to get you in my bed.”

Kurt stares back at him and it seems like an eternity to Blaine before Kurt leans in and presses a kiss to his lips. “Let me help you put these candles out,” he whispers. “It'll be quicker.”

Blaine nods and turns away from Kurt, starting at one side of the room while Kurt starts at the other. By the time Blaine has extinguished his share of the flames and switched off the television, Kurt is done and standing in the bedroom doorway, leaning up against the frame with a smile that Blaine can only describe as seductive. Blaine blushes under the scrutiny and takes the hand Kurt offers him and tugs him gently into the bedroom. When he turns to close the door he pushes Kurt up against it, and Kurt automatically shifts his legs out to the sides and slides a little down the door so that he's more Blaine's height. Kurt grabs the front of Blaine's shirt in his fist and pulls him closer until he can wrap his arms around Blaine's neck. 

Blaine's nerves are trying to get the better of him and he can feel his heart beating against his chest. He happily pushes his head back against Kurt's hand as Kurt's fingers stroke gently up the back of his neck and tangle in his hair. Leaning forward, he presses a kiss to Kurt's lips before starting to kiss back down the side of Kurt's neck, settling on a spot just above Kurt's collarbone and sucking a little. 

Kurt's head drops back against the door and his eyes flutter closed for a minute before he regains control of his senses and breathes out some words. “No hickeys, Blaine,” he sighs. He opens his eyes as Blaine complies with the request, pulling back and smiling as Kurt starts to walk him backwards towards the bed. 

By the time they reach the edge of the mattress Kurt's hands have dropped to Blaine's waistband and he's trying to work Blaine's zipper open while they're still kissing. Blaine helps as soon as Kurt has unfastened them, standing on the bottom of one pants leg with the other foot and pulling, which makes Kurt start to giggle into Blaine's mouth. 

“Kuuurt,” Blaine whines, blushing slightly. “Don't laugh.”

Kurt smiles and shakes his head, taking the opportunity to reach down and start to unbutton his jeans. “I'm just impressed. Downside of skinny jeans is how difficult they are to get off.”

Blaine grins. “Let me help with that, then.”

He lets Kurt finish up unfasting them before he reaches down, forcing them halfway down Kurt's thighs before spinning Kurt around and pushing him onto the bed. Kurt helpfully lifts his legs and Blaine pulls the jeans the rest of the way off, tossing them to the side with his own pants.

“You are so lucky those aren't designer,” Kurt laughs, his fingers flying to the buttons on his own shirt, quickly removing the offending garment without tearing his eyes away from Blaine while he does the same. Both shirts are deposited on top of the discarded pants before Blaine crawls onto the bed, hovering over Kurt. 

“You're perfect,” he says, because his brain is working at least two steps behind right now and the fact that Kurt is half naked on his bed is stopping him from coming up with something better. 

Kurt huffs a laugh against Blaine's shoulder and then kisses him again, settling on his side so that he's facing Blaine. “I'm really not.” He grins cheekily before adding, “But thank you.”

Blaine smiles back and gets comfortable. Kurt has one hand resting between them on the bed and Blaine shifts, wrapping his hand around Kurt's forearm and pushing one knee slightly between Kurt's legs. He smiles into the pillow as he strokes his thumb across the back of Kurt's wrist. “Tonight has gone way better than it did in my head.”

Kurt chuckles and rubs his nose up against Blaine's. “How did it go in your head?” 

“I wasn't sure you'd even come. I wasn't sure how mad you were.” Blaine looks down when he says that, avoiding eye contact with Kurt until he hears Kurt sigh quietly and he looks back up.

“I wasn't _mad_ , Blaine. I was a little confused, a little frustrated, I was a little of a whole lot of feelings but I wasn't really mad.” He pulls closer still and rests his free hand on Blaine's shoulder. “I didn't notice when you became my best friend, but you did-”

“I'm your best friend?” Blaine butts in, grinning. “Whatever will Rachel say?”

Kurt laughs and presses a kiss to Blaine's lips. “She can never know.”

Blaine is already laughing before they've even broken the kiss and he feels like his face is going to break if he doesn't stop smiling soon. He closes his eyes for a second and takes a breath, and laces his fingers with Kurt's. 

“It's important to me that you know I wasn't having doubts about you.”

“Blaine, you don't have to explain-” 

Blaine interrupts before Kurt can finish. “No, I know I don't have to, but I want you to know.” He pauses and looks at Kurt, raising his eyebrows and Kurt nods for him to continue. ““I put up a lot of walls over the last couple of years without really realising it. I get caught up in my head and I end up freaking myself out when spontaneous stuff happens.”

“You like to think things through, after everything that happened with Sebastian. That makes sense.”

“Yeah. And it was just that damn split second when it hit me that we were maybe going to kiss. This excited knot formed in my stomach because I _knew_ , and at the same time there was a voice in my head telling me no, that's not what's happening, don't mess this up.” He pauses and feels Kurt squeeze his shoulder in support. “I just... I've been falling for you since the day I met you and I wanted to be sure about everything, and then the more sure I was the more scared I got that I didn't know what I would do if you didn't feel the same. And if I didn't kiss you on Thursday then there was no way you could tell me I was wrong, and there's nothing there. Because most of all I was scared of losing your friendship.”

Kurt takes all of this in and quietly rubs his nose against Blaine's. “You had that entire train of thought in that one split second?” he whispers, smiling as Blaine nods. “That's impressive.”

“At the time it was more an overwhelming feeling of _RUN_ , and the reasons behind it kind of filtered through on the walk back to the theatre,” he admits. “Also, bros before hos,” Blaine grins and shrugs by way of explanation. “I wanted you to be my bro before you could become my ho.”

Kurt makes a strangled squawking noise that turns into laughing-and-choking and stares wide-eyed at Blaine. “You did _not_ just say that.” 

“I did.”

“Also I'm pretty sure that's not actually what that phrase is supposed to mean.”

“I'm re-appropriating the phrase. It's mine now.”

Kurt tucks his head against Blaine's shoulder and laughs, closing his eyes. “You're truly certifiable.”

–

When Blaine wakes up the next morning, Kurt is missing from the bed and he can hear movement in the kitchen. Deciding that clothes aren't important any more, he heads out of the bedroom in only his boxers and smiles when he sees Kurt standing at the stove.

“Eggs again?” Blaine smiles, coming up beside him and peering into the pan. 

“You know me so well,” Kurt laughs, turning into Blaine's arms and pressing a kiss on his lips. “Morning.”

Blaine doesn't realise at first that Kurt is wearing his clothes – a faded old tee and a pair of sweats. He's about to tell Kurt how hot that is when he hears the jingle of keys and then the front door swings open. 

“Blainey!” Cooper calls, and Blaine groans as Kurt just laughs and turns back to breakfast. Blaine sees the back of Cooper's head as he passes the kitchen door and heads into his room, and for a minute Blaine thinks they've earned a few minutes reprieve to get back into the relative safety of his own bedroom with their food when Cooper reappears. 

“So how did-” Cooper starts, before he's even reached the door. He interrupts himself when he sets eyes on Kurt and Blaine, and then a grin spreads slowly across his face. “About _time_!” he exclaims, and comes striding into the kitchen with his arm extended for a fist bump. 

Blaine sighs and concedes, knocking his fist against Cooper's. Cooper then turns to Kurt, whose eyes widen comically. “Seriously?”

“It's probably easiest if you just do it,” Blaine mutters into Kurt's ear. 

Blaine laughs when Kurt carefully turns off the heat on his pan and clenches his hand into a fist, allowing Cooper to bump his own against it. Grinning in victory, Cooper peers into the pan, squinting at it hopefully. “Scrambled eggs?”

Blaine rolls his eyes. “If we bring you some, will you leave us alone?”

Cooper nods happily and turns away from them, heading back into his bedroom. “I'll be in here, you can bring it to me.”

Blaine drops his chin down to his chest and sighs, while Kurt just laughs. “I hope you realise this is your life now,” Blaine raises an eyebrow, unable to stop himself from smiling when Kurt is already giggling. “Mollycoddling Cooper and cooking.”

“And making out with you?”

Blaine chuckles. “Yeah. That too.”

Kurt grins and leans over for a kiss before turning back to the stove to start serving their breakfast. “Sounds awesome.”


End file.
